Hi! Welcome to The Silver Spleen. My name is Latrell Sprewell,
and this is my review of RED CLIFF.
Red Cliff was released in 2 parts in Asia in 2008 and 2009.
I saw both parts in the cinema (but I went home in between).
The two parts were condensed into a single film for release in the West,
so I'm gonna combine the two films and just do one review. Obviously the two halves
are completely interrelated,
and I don't think that they're different enough to deserve a review each.
But what do I know, right? Well, I do know that there aren't two films called
THE FIVE COMMANDMENTS. Now, I've never read The Three Kingdoms
or played any of the games. I tried to read the book, but the
profusion of names after a while just made my head spin.
It reminded me of the Old Testament. I ended up having a
really weird dream about a fight between
Guan Gung and David. And David lost.
And Guan Guang held up that huge weapon and said
"FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!"
It was weird...
Where were we? Aah yes! Without having seen any of the
innumerable adaptations, whether on film or TV, I didn't have any bias.
I didn't have any kind of prejudice about what this character should look
like, or where that scene should take place.
A lot of people that I spoke to in Hong Kong criticized the film because
they had those kinds of preconceptions, and they felt that it just wasn't what
they wanted,
and it was different than what it 'should have been.' Now I can understand that,
because you know what?
Sean Connery is James Bond. Everyone else who ever tried to play James Bond
might have been okay, but they weren't Sean Connery. I didn't know the story of the
Battle of Red Cliff and you know what?
After watching both of the Red Cliff movies, I can say with absolute conviction
that I still don't know what the Battle of Red Cliff is about.
Like so many other classic Chinese stories told in film,
the producers understandably and justifiably
assume that the audience already knows the story, so they're not going to be
bothered telling the story. They're just going to use it as a framework
to set up a bnch of stuff. So that means that if you don't know the story,
and you know you're not going to be told the story, then really all you can do is
kinda sit back and see what the movie shows you.
And that was fine because to me this movie -these movies?-
isn't -aren't- really about the events as much as the
presentation. This story's about spectacle and there's plenty of that.
This is John Woo set free from the cultural limitations of Hollywood and given
a much bigger budget than he was used to
on this side of the planet. It's like a Michael Bay movie,
but in Chinese... and good. Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro
lead a really strong cast, all of whom turn in commendable performances.
Lin Chi Ling's film debut is an impressive turn
in a minor but pivotal role as a woman caught up in events
that are much larger than she is, even as she is at least partially
the cause those events. Vicky Zhao Wei is very entertaining as
Sun Shangxiang, the tomboyish sister of Sun Quan. Shido Nakamura is at
first glance kind of a disappointment
as Gan Xing. All he does is a lot of scowling and
very little speaking, all of which is dubbed. But he's very entertaining
and provides some comic relief as well as dramatic heft. The battle scenes are huge
in scope,
and the CGI is occasionally obvious, but it's also to be expected;
you couldn't build these sets in real life without gigantic expenses.
All of John Woo's recurring themes are here: loyalty,
honor, brotherhood that verges on romance,
birds. This is a film that I didn't really watch, I just kinda looked at
And for that it was a lot of fun. It's a very good, very strong, very interesting
movie, and if you haven't seen it,
I strongly suggest that you do. So if you haven't seen it, watch it by
buying a disc. Don't download the movie!
In the description there are links to where you can buy a DVD
or a Blu ray of this film. I can recommend Blu ray for this.
I don't own one, but I can recommend it. If you enjoyed the review, leave me a
comment. If you don't enjoy the review, please leave me a comment,
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