Red Cliff II (DVD)

I have been waiting for a film like this for a long time, a film that holds true to the stories of the romance of the three kingdoms era and one that really focuses on the details we are familiar with. Red Cliff follows the mysterious and spiritual military strategist 'Zhuge Liang' and does it in a way that portrays him as a highly intelligent, inspiring man of honour and wisdom. Some stories like to portray Zhuge Liang as an overly spiritual mystic who could change the weather, create storms and perform rituals to extend his life but the character played by Takeshi Kaneshiro in 'Red Cliff' is brought back to a homely reality with a believable ...  Read the complete review

This is a review of the Western version of the film seen at the cinema, as there are various versions available on DVD as it was originally released in two parts in Asia. This film is also known as Chi Bi. * ~ * ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* I went to see Red Cliff with my family for Father's Day, as we are Chinese and my brother and I thought it would be an interesting film to watch with my parents. The last time I went to the cinema with my Mum was when we went to see Three Men & A Baby and she fell asleep (understandable really), so we were hoping this would be a film that would hold her ...  Read the complete review

War's a nasty business. Particularly back in them olden days. Killing another human in combat being meant sticking a sharp bit of metal into them, twisting it round a bit, and ripping it out. Your opponent, (assuming you'd done it right) would collapse into the mud and bleed in agony until consciousness and then life left him. While he was busy dying, you would be moving on and be trying to do the same thing to someone else. Or, equally possibly, someone would have done it to you. So why should I be such a sucker for the classic sword and sandals epic movie? My tree-hugging hippy attitude to war always completely deserts me when the drums roll and the trumpets ...  Read the complete review

John Woo; a historical epic and an original release that ran to a wopping five hours of political intrigue, great battle scenes and spectacular scenery: this had all the makings of a great film and I have to say, Woo has carried it off very well indeed. Best known for his ultra-violent offerings such as Hard Boiled, Woo really surprised me with this one. His first venture into historical epics (one of my favourite genres), John did a really good job. The camera work is very good indeed, especially the use of the wonderful Asian scenery and the integration of very good characters with the usual sweeping panoramas and gargantuan battle scenes. As for ...  Read the complete review

John Woo is most famed for his superb "wire fu" and "heroic bloodshed" films such as Hard Boiled, The Killer, and A Better Tomorrow, as well as his middling outings when he came to Hollywood, such as Mission Impossible 2 and Paycheck. Red Cliff, however, is his foray into historical fare, and the first part was something of a surprising triumph for the director - it was smart, and shockingly, wasn't that action-packed. The sequel, though, is a real doozy - this displays the smart tactics of the armies involved in the Battle of Red Cliff (famously as some units placed adhesive material on the side of their boats so as to collect the enemy's arrows when ...  Read the complete review