Dir.
John Woo, China, 2008, 148 mins, Mandarin with subtitles
Cast:
Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi
Review by Carol Allen
John Woo is thought of primarily as an action director, going back to his early career in Hong Kong movies. And while there's plenty of spectacular action in Red Cliff, with this beautifully crafted re-enactment of second century Chinese history, based on a classic novel written in the 14th century by Luo Guanzhong, Woo returns to his Chinese cultural roots, creating a truly epic movie.
Set in 208 AD, the time of the Hang dynasty, ambitious manipulative Prime Minister Cao Cao (Fengyi) persuades the young Emperor to wage war on his uncle Liu Bei (You Yong), king of the western kingdom. Hopelessly outnumbered by Cao Cao's massive army, Liu Bei sends his military advisor Zhuge Liang (Kaneshiro) to the Wu kingdom in the south in an attempt to form an alliance. Liang becomes friends with that country's Viceroy Zhou Yu (Leung) and though the alliance is still vastly outnumbered, the joint army takes on the aggressors, culminating in the historic battle of Red Cliff.
There is no doubt whose side the film is on, from the point when early in the film we see Liu Bei and his forces fighting a losing battle against the invaders in order to enable the peasant refugees to make their escape. The central human interest comes from the friendship between Kaneshiro as the highly intelligent and charismatically handsome strategist Liang and Leung as the loyal and heroic Yu. Strong female interest is provided by Chiling Lin as Leung's beautiful wife and Zhao Wei as the female warrior, who disguises herself as a man to infiltrate the enemy camp and send back information.
While in some ways this film is moving into the genre territory of films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, the choreography here is not about the hypnotic beauty of slow motion martial arts sequences but of spectacular battle scenes. When Zhou and Liang are discussing their tactics and strategies, you might find yourself a little bewildered, until that is you see the strategies in action in breathtaking motion. The tale has the emotional engagement of David and Goliath, in that the campaign is a triumph of ingenuity and resourcefulness over brute strength, as in the sequence where Liang tricks the enemy into providing him with arrows to use against them, or when Leung's army use their shields to reflect the dazzling sunlight back at the enemy to keep them at bay. It also displays the epic qualities and indeed some analogies with the Trojan War, in that Cao Cao's Achilles' heel is his desire for Leung's wife and it is also spectacularly beautifully shot in a way that burns images onto your retina. There are individual frames you just want to isolate and hang on your wall, from the sunlight glinting on the lake with the mountains in the background to the sight of Cao Cao's massive navy lined up in the river approaching Red Cliff and stretching as far as the eye can see.
|
