Red Cliff (International)
You can read my review of the U.S. release of “Red Cliff” here.
John Woo’s 2 1/2 hour distillation of his 5-hour epic, “Red Cliff,” is one of the great cinematic experiences of the past two decades for me. Yes, you could very much tell the seams of his attempt to tell the story of the Battle of Red Cliffs at the end of the Han Dynasty, but it was exhilarating to watch the master action filmmaker tell his best story since “Hard Boiled,” unencumbered by the things that held him back in his decade making Hollywood films, and working on a canvas as big as those one of his favorite filmmakers, Akira Kurosawa, did in his samurai epics. I even managed to get the one-sheet for the film from the theatre after its run had ended. When it came out on disc in 2010, I bought that version, as well as the International version that had both original parts of the story as they came out in Asia and China. Having finally watched the latter, I doubt I will ever rewatch the U.S. release.
I did not expect to take a decade to finally watch “Red Cliff” the way Woo intended it seen, but the reason it did was simple logistics- I wanted to watch both parts, back-to-back, rather than each one on its own. That’s a lot of time to carve out for a single cinematic experience, especially with all the other responsibilities of life going on. It did not disappoint. While I do think that 2 1/2 hour version is perfectly suitable for people who might be casually interested in the story Woo is telling, the two-part experience is for people who have no problem indulging in the extended editions of the “Lord of the Rings” saga, or will marathon a franchise just because they feel like it. Yes, there are moments when Woo’s storytelling moves at a level of indulgence that makes you feel like he could have trimmed a lot of these scenes into a single, “Lawrence of Arabia”-sized epic with an intermission, it’s hard to argue too much as you’re getting swept up in the film’s grand scope.
The film begins with the young Emperor of China, at the time, being advised by his Prime Minister, Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang), to attack warlords in the South, Sun Quan (Chen Chang) and Liu Bei (Yong You), whom he has denounced as “rebels.” It’s purely a power grab by Cao Cao, but the Emperor approves. Cao Cao’s forces take swift action against the people of the Jing Province, as he attacks civilians leaving the province, and being shielded by Liu Bei’s army. Many of the civilians manage to escape- although, sadly, Liu Bei’s family dies save for his infant son, who is rescued by warrior Zhao Yun (Zhao Yun)- but the armies are depleted. Liu Bei sends an advisor- Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro)- down to negotiate an alliance between Sun Quan and Liu Bei, which he manages to accomplish, all the while building a friendship and strategic alliance with Zhou Yu (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung), Sun Quan’s brilliant viceroy. Together, they work to get the combined forces prepared for the defense of the South against Cao Cao, with the base at Red Cliff being their prime location of strength.
John Woo’s best films have always had, at their heart, themes of friendship, loyalty, reluctant warriors, duality of enemies, and a love of the innocent, who must be protected, and all of those are front-and-center in “Red Cliff,” and pronounced during the nearly 5-hour experience he originally created for Asian audiences. This is a large canvas epic in the vein of “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Ran,” and “Braveheart”- and what the Hell, “Lord of the Rings” even- with several different characters, and character dynamics, it is setting up. This is why a scene of a tiger hunt is important to the larger narrative being told by Woo, and the difficult birthing of a baby horse matters to the story; they tell us not just about the people whom they center around, but the relationships being forged during those moments. Yes, they don’t move the plot along, but they matter for the world Woo is thrusting us into, and the conflict he is developing. I could watch these sequences unfold all day in isolation, even if they could have been trimmed a bit from the whole. Some of the film’s most intriguing scenes involve the strategies Cao Cao, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang are employing against one another, and how they play out. They are the centers of the story, and the chess match between them is riveting to watch. It’s classic Woo, which would only be improved if Cao Cao and Zhou Yu or Zhuge Liang had a scene together sizing each other up before the Battle of Red Cliffs began.
This is a tremendous cinematic epic, with gorgeous cinematography (by Yue Lü and Li Zhang) and visual effects scored beautifully by Taro Iwashiro, and edited by Woo and his team (Robert A. Ferretti, Angie Lam and Hongyu Yang) to move at a brisk pace, and in a way that signals the Woo from his Hong Kong days, even if his storytelling feels like a more refined use of cinematic cliches and storytelling from his Hollywood years. (“Windtalkers” may come to mind during some of the battle sequences.) It’s fascinating to think that it took getting out of Hollywood for Woo to make his biggest movies (another two-part epic, “The Crossing”- which I have not seen- followed this one), and they might be his best use of the Hollywood clout. “The Crossing” could change my mind depending on how I feel about it if/when I eventually see it, but even if I don’t like that one, “Red Cliff” is a masterful example of Woo’s vision coming to life, and it’s a thrilling piece of cinematic storytelling worthy of being seen the way he intended. I’m grateful I finally have done so.
