Battle Lines Are Drawn

Director John Woo made a name for himself worldwide with action films like Hard Boiled, The Killer, Mission: Impossible 2, and Face/Off so when I heard that he was going to take on the task of making an epic war movie in Red Cliff, I was admittedly skeptical. After all, I kind of viewed epic romantic films set in China as more the realm of Tsui Hark, Ang Lee, or even Zhang Yimou. I was intrigued enough however to give it a shot. Boy, am I glad I did.


Based on the legendary Battle of Red Cliffs during the end of the Han Dynasty in China, the film depicts Prime Minister Cao Cao’s (Zhang Fenyi) plan to lead the the 300,000-strong Imperial Army over the southern part of China. Cao Cao wields more influence than the emperor and marches over the Guangzhou province governed by Liu Bei (You Yong). Liu’s chief advisor Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is sent to negotiate an alliance with the Southern region led by Sun Quan (Chang Chen). Zhuge is a brilliant strategist who teams with Sun’s viceroy, Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) to formulate the battle plan that can repulse Cao Cao’s invasion through the use of tactics, knowledge of the weather in Southern China, some intuition, and a lot of luck.

Too often, the Filipino film viewer is exposed to war movies from America, whether it be World War I, World War II, or even the American Revolutionary War. We’ve also seen wars fought in the United Kingdom, France, and the like on film. It is quite rare to see a war movie set in Asia with a budget as big as evident here in Red Cliff. The battles are indeed epic, even grander than some of the big battles I’ve seen in Braveheart, The Patriot, Pearl Harbor, and Saving Private Ryan. Woo was able to capture the grand scale of the Battle of Red Cliffs and it is a delight to see on the big screen.

Despite the huge scale of the battle scenes, Woo is also able to deliver some very up close and personal scenes for his actors. Leung has been a favorite of mine since I first saw him in Hero and subsequently in the Infernal Affairs trilogy. His onscreen chemistry with Kaneshiro is crucial in the film’s success, and they do manage to come across as equals who have the potential to be rivals but end up working well together during wartime. Lin Chi-ling has a pretty impressive film debut here as Leung’s wife who actually acts and is not limited to being mere eye candy. Zhao Wei, also an old favorite of mine from So Close and Shaolin Soccer doesn’t resort to just batting her eyelashes and cashing in on her cuteness in this film as she plays the tomboyish Sun Shangxiang. There is such an impressive ensemble of actors in Red Cliff that it’s easy to get drawn into the story.

However, what really pumped me up for this film were the huge battle scenes shot by John Woo. A few Woo trademarks are evident again here (flying doves, lots of slow-motion, montage to highlight a climactic scene) but unless you’ve seen a John Woo film in the past, they come off as quite seamless and integral to the picture. From my perspective, Woo obviously used some CGI to enhance the numbers of Cao Cao’s naval fleet and the soldiers on both sides, but he was still able to get a large number of extras to actually participate. To see the detail in the ships, the armor, and the weapons from that period in Chinese history is astounding and much appreciated.

I have no idea if the real historical figures did study how the southwest and northeast winds would blow before they organized their plan of attack. I don’t know if the legends were indeed almost superhuman in their fighting ability and their use of spears and swords. Despite all that, I was more than happy to see how Woo showed all of these on film and made them all look amazingly cool. It did seem a bit strange though to watch Chinese and Japanese actors dubbed with seemingly Indian voice actors. It may have indeed been better than getting American actors who could have used American colloquialisms, it still took me a little while to stop noticing their accents and just listen to the words being said instead.

Red Cliff is a real tour-de-force for Woo, breaking him out of the “action movie” mold that we’ve all placed him in. It’s based on legendary historical figures with great actors and some jawdropping action thrown in as well.