Red Cliff (2008)

Red Cliff. My knowledge on the history of China, particularly on the epic - yet often highly exaggerated - legend of the Three Kingdom is quite small. Of this miniscule knowledge I've got from comics (no, not the popular "Legenda Naga" comic which I loathe) and especially, games, I took a personal liking to Cao Cao for I think he is one with a noble reason to unite all of China despite his questionable methods, and Guan Yu for his understandably fictionalized and much exaggerated deeds and moral values. Therefore, when John Woo said that his two episode films about the Battle of Red Cliff will be based on historical fact, I was clearly flourish with anticipation. Of course, I don't have any idea about the differences between the historical facts and its romanticised counterpart and therefore could take any depiction of it with a grain of salt.

Red Cliff, episode one runs too long to my liking and it certainly won't appeal to casual viewers who had no idea nor care about the Romance of the Three Kingdom. Therefore i think that it's a wise decision to release this film into one single episode in the North America rather than two episodes just like what we saw here in Asia. Me and my wife agreed that there are many points in the film where the tone shifted uneasily, slowed down to a bore, and threatened my wife (who has a relatively short attention span) into a slumber. Further, we're agreed, not because we're sexist and all, that the role of women characters in this film are ones that put a huge question mark in our head and put a serious dent in the overall. For example, the birth scene. I really don't think that it would hurt anyone had the scene was eliminated entirely.

This film depicted the battle of Red Cliff or as this episode concerned, the first part of the battle of Red Cliff which happened right at the end of Han dynasty and arguably, trigger the event that led into a much known tale of Three Kingdom. The battle pitched a Northern army led by Cao Cao against the southern coalition of Liu Bei and Zhou Yu at the place called Red Cliff which even if the actual place was still a speculation, it was believed to be located somewhere along the Yangtze river bank.

For a viewer who had a prior engagement to the history (or fiction) of Three Kingdom this film could actually become a pleasant experience, my wife and I had a brief discussion on Who's Who during the film and we're actually pretty good in guessing each and every prominent characters that appear in this film. It's no brainer really, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, and Zhang Fei were quickly identifiable as they were given attributes that doesn't far off from their physical description in books and once their roles were established, the rest easily follows.

As I've said earlier, the film runs too long and a quick glance to the poster, it's obvious that this episode is mainly concerned with Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and his blossoming rivalry with Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) and if I could say it so myself, their chemistry was an okay one, not that "wow" but quite not that "meh" as well. Cao Cao had pretty much the same treatment with most of books and games about Three Kingdom out there, a cocky and arrogant antagonist albeit an excellent strategist almost at par with Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu. My problem lies with Liu Bei. Although I'm really not into his character, I had wished to see a powerful and charismatic character. He is after all, a man that could made powerful men such as Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei pledge their loyalty to his cause. Sadly, I found none of the said qualities in this film. Worse, on one scene, he is treated as no better than a comedy film's clown. That, and those white doves.

My rating: **1/2 / **** - A film that appeals more to the History of Three Kingdom savvy. Fight scenes were few and far between given the long running time. If I could make a comparison, "Warlords" (also with Takeshi Kaneshiro) proves a better fare for a film.