Tuesday 7 February 2012

Cliff notes

Red Cliff (2008)

Based on the historic battle of the same name this Chinese film from director John Woo stars Tony Leung and a host of other Chinese stars. Two rebel fractions unite to take on a power grabbing Prime Minister in 208 AD.

In Asia this film was released in two parts with a total run time of 280 minutes but this is a review of the Western release which is a cut down 148 minutes. While it does feel like there may be some scenes missing this does not have a very large negative impact on the film but when it comes to the plot it does seem that history has been jettisoned in favour of legend. Of course the style of John Woo is all over this film but it does detract from the realism when you have generals of the army fighting like super heroes. Certainly this film is lovely to watch but does lack something more beyond that.

3/5

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