Red Cliff

Another movie I have seen recently. It just opened at the Chicago Film Festival a few weeks ago. The movie is directed by John Woo and he was there for the premier and took questions from the audience after. It was pretty awesome. Expensive ($25 per ticket... ugh!) but awesome.

The movie is based on the Chinese literature Romance of the Three Kingdoms. If you've ever played any of the Dynasty Warriors video games, those games are based on the same book. The book is something like 3000 pages and is based on the Three Kingdoms era of China around the fall of the Han dynasty. Red Cliff only takes a small chunk of the book, but definitely some of the best material. I have put hours into the DW games, reading all of the history of each level, so I was very familiar with the characters and story going into the movie. It didn't disappoint. While there were aspects that I would've liked added in, it was really everything I wanted out of the movie. I had researched various tv shows and short-run animes based on the material, but could never get my hands on any of them. I even checked the book out of the library about 6 years ago... but it is very difficult reading. Having seen the movie, it has re-sparked my interest in the material and I may go back and see if I can buy the book(s) and slog my way through them. Of all the Chinese cinema movies that I have seen (Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, King of Masks) this was definitely the best. Of course, my opinion is biased due to my familiarity with the base material, but I thought it was awesome. If it happens to come to a theatre near you and you like any of the above mentioned movies (or the video games!) you should definitely watch it.

Action: 10/10 - awesome battle scenes. the main characters have ridiculous 1 vs. many fights that are crazy good
Story: 10/10 - basically with good strategy, the strong bonds of a few can overcome the many.
Cinematography: 10/10 - can I turn this up to 11?! amazing, like most chinese epics

Overall: 10/10 - I think I summarized my like for it pretty well... just keep in mind that the original book is based in history but definitely takes liberties. The analogy I've used is this is to China as King Arthur is to England. (though we do have multiple Chinese people on these forums, so correct me if I'm wrong)

Binary: 1/1 - I am more than satisfied that I spent money and time to see this... even at $25 per ticket. (I'm guessing it won't be that much at a regular theatre)

Did you see Red Cliff Part 1, or was it both parts?

I'm under the impression it was both parts. It basically starts with Liu Bei's escape with the peasants through the end of the battle at Red Cliff and Cao Cao's defeat.

The time period starts at the end of the Han Dynasty around 180 A.D.. The history has been highly romantized (thus the book series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"). There are at least two related game lines based off this book series. One is Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The most recent one out is RoTK (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) 11. The other is Dynasty Warriors. There is a more historical book (series) out that one can dig around for.

As for the movie, in Asia there were two parts "Red Cliff 1" and "Red Cliff 2", both over 1.5 hours long. The first one came out over a year and a half ago, while the second one came out over half a year ago. The international version is only one single 2 hour movie, thus obviously condensed.

I myself thoroughly enjoyed the movie, even though the movie did take some liberties that deviated from the book. Most movies have taken liberties (director's representation).

Snaphin wrote:

As for the movie, in Asia there were two parts "Red Cliff 1" and "Red Cliff 2", both over 1.5 hours long. The first one came out over a year and a half ago, while the second one came out over half a year ago. The international version is only one single 2 hour movie, thus obviously condensed.

I myself thoroughly enjoyed the movie, even though the movie did take some liberties that deviated from the book. Most movies have taken liberties (director's representation).

good info! yeah there are certainly deviations and bits left out, but I don't think it changed the overall feel of the story much.