Let's face it, moving to Hollywood wasn't the best career move that Asian auteur John Woo ever made. Sure, Face/Off was shameless fun and Broken Arrow was a lot better than some critics would have people believe, but for every top-of-the-line action blockbuster, there was a Paycheck, a Windtalkers and numerous straight-to-video clunkers to fill his CV with dross.
Is it any wonder then that his return to China should result in one of his most beloved projects so far? Red Cliff is the story of one of the most significant battles in Ancient Chinese history. To the people's Republic, it holds the same legacy as Agincourt, or Waterloo and the studios were happy to stump up the US$124 million budget for the lavish production. But with a market already bulging at the seams with House Of Flying Daggers, Curse Of The Golden Flower and a million other oriental epics, is there really room for another?
John Woo's Red Cliff: Chinese Film On An Epic Scale
Well, the film gives you plenty of time to decide as even scaled down from the two film, five hour version unleashed in the East, Red Cliff is epic in scope. Running just shy of three hours, it is filled with Woo trademarks - melodrama, violence, friendship, doves - and is a major return to form for the director.
Granted, in this compressed Western version the plot barely gets a look in and at times has a jerky, broken record feel to it. The developing bromance between Tony Leung's Naval commander and Takeshi Kaneshiro's expert strategist especially seems undernourished and supporting characters aren't really characters at all, becoming little more than archetypes thanks to the reduced screen time. Goodbye personalities, hello tough guy, bearded guy, honour man and spunky girl.
Slow Motion Blood Splattering
Despite this however, Red Cliff is still an absolute joy because of the sheer scale of the whole thing. Extras swarm in their thousands, shots of the landscape become breathtaking aerial journeys and the numerous battle scenes are set pieces par excellence. If it's not obvious by the end of the spectacular opening clas that Woo has enjoyed being let off the leash, just wait until the climactic brawl begins.
Simply put, The Battle Of Red Cliff itself is Woo's most incredible action sequence to date. As the outnumbered heroes use a mixture of clever tactics and raw luck to take the fight to the boo hiss General Cao Cao, all hell breaks loose. A fleet of thousands of warships is turned into a raging inferno, legions of warriors clash with spears and arrows and the body count escalates so rapidly that it wouldn't be surprising if corpses started tumbling out of the TV screen to sprawl across the living room.
Red Cliff: The Verdict
More bloody than a Spartan butchers, as epic as the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and with a real flair for the grandiose, Red Cliff is a welcome return to form for China's most famous director. Even in it's abbreviated form it can stand toe-to-toe with any of it's Western contemporaries. Is there room in the market for one more oriental epic? On the strength of this film, there's room for a whole lot more.
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