The Battle of Red Cliff holds a special place in Chinese history and John Woo managed to capture it in two movies. Red Cliff was released in 2008 and the second part a year later. Taking place in the Three Kingdoms era, it features Yong You as Liu Bei, Chang Chen as Sun Quan, and Zhang Fengyi as the despicable Cao Cao.
Fighting alongside Liu Bei are his three formidable generals – Zhang Fei (Zang Jinsheng), Guan Yu (Ba Sen Zha Bu), and Zhao Yun (Jun Hu). He asked his military strategist Zhuge Liang (Tajeshi Kaneshiro) to form an alliance with Sun Quan.
Zhuge Liang then met Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and it was fun to see two brilliant minds plan on how to destroy their common enemy. Their partnership led to a successful campaign against Cao Cao’s army.
With all the action and the battle scenes, it’s a refreshing break to see beautiful female characters on the screen. Vicky Zhao or Zhao Wei (yes, Hua Mulan herself) stars as Sun Shangxiang, sister of Sun Quan. In Red Cliff II she sort of became Mulan again as she disguised herself as one of Cao Cao’s minion and went to the enemy camp to spy on them.
But the hottest one in both Red Cliff movies is Zhou Yu’s wife Xiao Qiao, who was portrayed by Lin Chi-ling. There was a long bed scene between husband and wife that, not wanting to sound prude but was just that, too long. Yes, I got it that John Woo wanted to show the couple’s passion but that was the only thing I saw from it.
Both Red Cliff 1 and 2 featured epic battle scenes composed of hundreds of CGI soldiers, who were done seamlessly. John Woo did what he does best and that’s to produce exciting action scenes. There were lots of fight sections featuring one of the glorious generals fighting alone against a mob. The fight sequences were breathtaking and choreographed well.
John Woo’s signature pigeon shots found their way into Red Cliff. But this time around Woo’s feathered friends played an important role in the movie.
Liu Bei (Yong You): Truth and illusion are often disguised as each other, Cao Cao likes to play this game, both with friends and foes.
I watched Red Cliff parts 1 and 2 in one sitting and it was worth it. It didn’t feel tiresome at all. Although the movies are more fiction than historical facts, it does provide people with little knowledge of Chinese history some insights of how the Battle of Red Cliff went down. Plus, you get to know a lot about ancient warfare from them.
Red Cliff is worth watching. In case you don’t know, I don’t usually like period movies but this is an exemption. It has everything you want from an action movie and more.
