Red Cliff

I am completely aware of my film soft spot and honestly do not care if it leads to any sort of bias. I have been anticipating Red Cliff for years now. While it does not actually move to the top of the list, this falls right behind some of my favorite films of all-time, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and The House of Flying Daggers.

There was a time where Red Cliff put together the trifecta of my favorite Hong Kong director, John Woo, Hong Kong actor, Chow Yun-Fat, and favorite Hong Kong genre, Chinese history (or more specifically everyone knows martial arts and everything is solved by these skills). Sadly Chow dropped out before filming began, but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad and my second favorite HK actor, Tony Leung, replaced him. To say I had high expectations would be putting it mildly. Then mix in the fact that the 2 part original films were cut to pieces to fit into 1 film for an American release, well I had to see this as soon as possible and have been scanning theaters for months hoping to find a screen-time. It was definitely worth the wait and effort.

Now I wouldn’t call this John Woo’s first good movie since his last Hong Kong movie, but depending on your feelings towards Face/Off it is his first great movie since Hard Boiled. Its not even him going back to his guns and gangsters genre, where all his most famous films Hard Boiled, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow I and II reside. Like I wrote earlier, instead of going back to what he was known for, Woo went back to China to make a film similar to what Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou have done over the last decade. This almost makes his 17 years in America not seem like a waste of time. Almost.

Nearly every single character is a familiar face in Red Cliff. But Tony Leung is not only one of the leads, but someone that I always look forward to his performance. I have mixed feelings because it would be nice to see him in English language movies but at the same time he is always in the great films coming out of Hong Kong. He is the main hero, the classic skilled martial artist who strives for peace, along with Takeshi Kaneshiro as this awesome military strategist who never actually fought. He just made decisions for the generals and watched the bloodshed while fanning himself. I WANT THAT JOB! I could keep going through the cast but trust me when I said I loved every body in Red Cliff.

After seeing the American version of Red Cliff, I am fiending to get my hands on the original Hong Kong version. The fact that there is over an hour of footage that I haven't seen is killing me. Red Cliff was a fantastic import that confirms why I bust my ass to see these films in a theater.

9 out of 10 (The originals may bump this to 10 out of 10)