Red Cliff International Version – Part I & Part II
Product Description
RED CLIFF, the epic historical drama based on a legendary 208 A.D. battle that heralded the end of the Han Dynasty. A power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) seeks permission from the Han dynasty Emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush the two troublesome warlords who stand in his way, Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s brutal, fast – approaching army, the warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign – unrivaled in history – that changes the face of China forever.Amazon.com
Director John Woo’s Red Cliff boasts some mighty impressive numbers. It took four screenwriters to adapt the 800,000-word source mate… More >>
Red Cliff International Version – Part I & Part II
February 6th, 2010 at 2:12 am
i seriously don’t know why the initial reviews for this movie is so positive here at amazon (and mirrored by major review sites all around the country). alright, perhaps the ‘ancient Chinese’ ‘based on historical facts’ and ‘made by john woo’ tags can hook a few people, but seriously, calling this the ‘best movie’ or ‘most magnificent recent film’ etc just shows lack of taste. Perhaps its because people are afraid of saying anything bad made by the Chinese? Or perhaps it has to do with their lack of understanding of the original material? Still, something as inane as Twilight can and did make some serious coins in the box office, so go figure.
in the tradition of recent Chinese cinema ‘blockbusters’, Red Cliff is an ultra shallow film that should be avoided. the acting here is uniformly cringe-inducing bad. And before you say it, no, its not some crazy language / cultural gap – the acting doesn’t get any better even if you speak Chinese. The exception is Tony Leung, who is one of the best character actor out of Hong Kong, but he is totally wasted here in his role. For someone who has been in the business for as long as he is, he (and his agent) really should’ve walked away from this project the first time around (he walked away from the initial roll offered to him). The remainder group of… celebrity cast involved can’t act their way out of a box, much less carry a ‘epic’ ‘blockbuster’.
As the movie’s plot is based on a 600 years old historical novel that itself is based on 1900 years old history, you figure it won’t be so hard to make a compelling story. No luck here. There are so much ‘inventive’ rewrites and character ‘modernizing’, one wonders why they even bothered keeping the character names at all (incidentally, same atrocity happened with the recent 2010 Sherlock Holmes flick). Graphically, the set design ranges from poor to ridiculous (one wonders if the cinematographer and Woo has ever been to the real Red Cliff location). The over used CGI models are so poor, that if it were a video game, kids today would never touch it. The costume design, handled by Tim Yip, is competent, but nothing memorable. The music, while again competent, is at odds thematically with the rest of the movie.
The saddest thing about this whole fiasco of a movie is that the source material, ‘romance of three kingdoms’ is a great novel that deserves a good movie and a competent director. Unfortunately John Woo has no idea how to handle anything more than a slow-mo guy and two pistols – anything that’s even remotely out of his usual range will and do suck (WW2 / Windtalkers, Fantasy / bulletproof Monk, SciFi / Paycheck, for example). how he got the funding and the go ahead for this project is beyond me.
unless you wanna play a drinking game along with this (a shot ever time you cringe), avoid this movie at all cost.
Rating: 1 / 5
February 6th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Well filmed, well directed, well acted, this film should be in the library of anyone interested in Chinese military history.
Rating: 5 / 5
February 6th, 2010 at 4:04 am
I’ve seen John Woo’s Red Cliff a couple of times now in both the full “international” version, which is really the way the film was made and the shorter International version which was shown in theaters and on pay per view here in the US. This version essentially removes over two hours of material from the story. (If I figured it correctly this version cuts the first half of the full version to an hour and the second half to about 80 minutes)
To me the full version is the way to go and not this theatrical release. The problem with this short version is that it removes a great deal of character development, numerous subplots (which makes several shots at the end of the film not mean anything-why is that soldier mourning a dead enemy? Its something thats been removed), the real ends of some characters and plots, and amazingly a great deal of the action sequences (the most obvious cuts are in the opening and closing battle sequences which are very cut down). In this case less is less.
Yes, the film moves faster (but I think more confusingly) and yes its removed many of the philosophical and strategic talks that some people found dull, but at the same time it makes the film little more than a series of connected battle scenes.The full version has a scope of action and character rarely equaled in film. This short version is pomp and circumstance with little behind it. I also find it confusing, which is strange since I had seen the full version twice prior to seeing this cut version.
To me the way to go is to see the full version. yes its five hours long but its on DVD where you can stop and pause. This version is considerably less than that full version, containing many of the visual highs but little of the emotional peaks.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 6th, 2010 at 4:52 am
I am looking forward for this Epic movie to be released in the USA. For us here in Asia, this movie comes in full screen. Really wanted to watch it in Blu-ray in widescreen.
The movie is a 5-stars no doubt about it, if u love chinese history, this story must be familiar. The Blu-ray format that I am holding here, is beautiful, sharp images, crystal clear sound perfect match for this Epic chinese movie. This is a movie that i will watch it over and over again.
Rating: 5 / 5
February 6th, 2010 at 5:35 am
I’ve seen the full two part version of Red Cliff a couple of times now and all I can say is it is a masterpiece. It has spectacular battle sequences, wonderful characters and great discussions of a variety of topics. Its one of the greatest achievements in film I’ve run across. Its a wonderful trip into another time and place.
This film is getting two versions released on DVD and to me, if you’re going to see this film I recommend that you see this full version. You have to keep in mind that the way this was originally released was as two separate films running approximately 150 minutes each. It was really designed to be a story spread out across a huge canvas. If you want to see this film, this is the way to go.
I’m not going to go into the merits off the film itself, that’s best left for you to discover, I just want to point out a couple of things about this version of the film and its differences between it and the theatrical version.
First when you watch this version be patient. The film is almost five hours long and it uses all of that time to build characters. I remember when I saw the first half I was shocked at how many characters didn’t seem to have a reason for being. Then I saw the second half and found that they got their time in the spotlight there.
Be ready for the film to pause to build characters and to set up the philosophy and reasons behind what is happening. This is more than just armies crashing together. Its a whole world not a battlefield. There are times when the action stops for a while while people talk and make plans.
If you are considering whether to get this or the shorter version understand that this full version is essentially cut in half by the “theatrical” version. The first half of the film is cut down to around an hour and the second half gets cut down to around eighty minutes. The resulting film loses not only many characters, much character development, numerous subplots (including how some characters really end up making shots at the end mean nothing), but also a good deal of the action. Most notably the opening and closing battle sequences are cut down in the short version. I’ve spoken with a couple of people who prefer the short version because it gets right to the good stuff, but at the same time they aren’t in love with the trims to the action.
For me there is no question, the only way to see this film is to see this longer “international” version. Yes it has more talk, but to me that builds character and makes you care about the people and the situations more, it also has more action. Certainly a few bits get talky but since this is a DVD one can zip ahead a little bit (yes I know its sacrilege, but at the same time if you’re concerned about too much talk better to do that and see the full film rather than be missing half the film.) This is a spectacular film and if you are going to see it you must make an effort to see it in its full glory.
Rating: 5 / 5