Red Cliff (2008)
Red Cliff (2008) 6/10
Overlong and overwrought, Red Cliff is an entertaining mainstream spectacle that feels like an overlong trailer for Red Cliff Part 2.
Its big, its loud and it has more stars that the past 5 HK films you’ve seen. Red Cliff is so humongous, it has to be split into 2 parts. Part 1, or Red Cliff, has all the classic John Woo motiffs, amongst them themes of brotherhood, flower vase female roles and yes, pigeons. Loosely based on the classic Three Kingdom text, the film features familiar characters like Cao Cao, Liu Bei, ZhuGe Liang etc. Those not weaned on such names might find the film confusing at first, especially when the film introduces a huge cast of characters at the outset. However, it soon becomes fairly obvious that Cao Cao is the “baddie” and leads Takeshi Kaneshiro as ZhuGe Liang and Tony Leung and Zhou Yu are supposed to be the heroic leads.
First the bad: The film is padded with overlong and some frankly unnecessary scenes that can easily be cut. Amongst the most egregious are an extended zither playing sequence between Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro, as well as possibly the lamest tiger hunting sequence ever filmed. The film also has pretty gals in totally cosmetic roles that serve very little purpose. To be fair Vicki Zhao actually acquits herself by providing bits of comic relief, but Lin Chiling is quite colorless in her role, and isn’t very good with her dialog. The film also features Japanese actor Shido Nakamura mangling his lines in Chinese and a fairly mediocre cast of supporting characters that don’t make much of an impression. Even the leads Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro seem miscast and feel like they would have been more comfortable if their roles were reversed (ie Leung should have taken ZhuGe Liang while Kaneshiro should be Zhou Yu).
Still, the good news is that even if they seem miscast, they don’t let it show. Leung doesn’t appear until almost the halfway mark but such is his easy screen presence that he effortlessly steals the scenes. Kaneshiro isn’t quite at Leung’s level, but he nevertheless displays sufficient charisma to give a solid performance as ZhuGe Liang. It also helps that Leung and Kaneshiro have worked on many films before and their characters enjoy an easy rapport. Zhang Fengyi makes for a decent Cao Cao, although i would have preferred someone with a more malevolent aura like say Chen Daoming for the role.
As for the film, i must say that the action sequences were lacklustre and few and far between. Alot of time is spent on stuff like strategy, talking and more talking and other not particular important stuff. It is not surprising that the US release of the Red Cliff is going to condense the film into one film, since in my view the first part of Red Cliff is filled with along of excess padding and could well do with some judicious editing to trim off the fat and make for a more well-paced film.
As a crowd pleading flick, John Woo delivers entertaining, escapist fun for the masses. Red Cliff is not a particularly good film, but it is a serviceable blockbuster. Considering the current standards of films made in HK (and when judged against the recent and terrible Three Kingdom film starring Andy Lau), you could do worse than Red Cliff.
