diggus doggus
For some reason, no easter film nowadays seems to escape the wuxia curse - whenever there is any sort of action, it needs to be over-the-top unrealistic action because of REASONS. Anyway, Chi Bi (Red Cliff, a film adaptation of the civil war of the Three Kingdoms period) is a pseudo historical film where there is much wuxia fighting while apparently something else also goes on. The film is three hours long. It's boring. it's slow. It's excessively melodramatic. The acting is always forced, there is no attempt at historical accuracy, so unless you are in the market for a three hour all you can eat of kung fu fights, why would you watch this film. Red Cliff isn't terrible, i suppose if you wanted some asian action, this film will do it for you. What it doesn't do, is have a sense of pacing with said action. Say, like The Matrix had. The story is very vague and serves more as a framing device for the good guys to beat up the bad guy, and hardly every moves forward. Combat is laughably unrealistic and without a set of rules laid beforehard, such as, say, THE MATRIX had. So you're just watching three hours of guys on strings shattering spears with their bare hands. Honestly, i'm done with this garbage. I'm not 14yo anymore. I was hoping the asian cinema was ready to come of age, but since the magnificent Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, it seems they have taken more steps back than steps forward. It's bad. I mean, it's not HORRIBLE, but i wouldn't recommend it. 5.5/10
donahue-1
Red Cliff is a superficial entertaining martial arts movie that had the potential to be much better but failed to come close to Kurosawa's Ran or Kagemusha in storyline or depth of character. Even the Korean Film - The Admiral - Roaring Currents (2014) was much superior in storyline - acting and special effects. If you enjoy watching folks doing unbelievable aerobatics and slicing and dicing twenty armed opponents this film is for you. If not - watch this once and then donate to your local library.
Tweekums
In the year 208 AD Prime Minister Cao Cao persuades the Han Emperor that he should be allowed to lead an army to unite all of China by invading Xu and East Wu, who are declared rebels. After his initial success these kingdom's form an alliance and prepare for battle at the strategic fortification at Red Cliff. Cao Cao's forces massively outnumber the 'rebels' but their skilled tactical leaders lead to an early victory
however Cao Cao still has a massive naval force positioned across the river from Red Cliff.This, the first half of John Woo's epic telling of the Battle of Red Cliff, is full of the sort of exciting action one would expect from Woo. There are numerous large scale battle scenes that are among the best I've seen. They capture the confusion of close quarters fighting as well as some of the brutality. The characters are interesting and the 'rebels', who are clearly the 'good guys' here are likable. This is largely because away from the fighting, politics and strategic discussions there are several lighter moments; many featuring a princess who wants to play her part in the battle and certainly doesn't intend to be married off. The cast does a fine job bringing their characters to life and keeping things interesting so I was never bored despite the fact that this film is well over two hours long but only tells the first half of the story. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of historical Chinese action films even if I can't say how close it is to the known facts about what really happened
it certainly left me looking forward to Part Two.These comments are based on watching the film in Mandarin with English subtitles.
bbickley13-921-58664
This movie was epic. Everything about it screams enormous.What I find interesting about Chinese cinema is that most of their epics especially their "blockbusters" are never about fictional characters. They are about real Chinese heroes who are made into legend through stories and film.The movie is long. So long Peter Jackson was even like hold up man. I had to watch it it three pieces.But it's worth it to get an epic 25 min war battle.And It's a John woo film. No wonder the action scenes are so well done.The Movie makes more room for the action of the strategies of the war rather that talking through out. That works for me as a foreigner.Definitely worth seeing, but you have to shelf some time to do so.
AD
