Red Cliff

I've been waiting for almost a year for this movie to be released here. And last night, I finally got to watch it.

It's a film about the battle of Red Cliff which occurred during the period of the Three Kingdoms in China. This period was the bloodiest period in the history of China.

Why am I so excited about a movie about this?

Well to begin with. This is the most expensive movie ever produced by China. And the most successful too. It beat Titanic as the highest grossing film in China.

Second, it features some of Asia's finest and brightest actors like Tony Leung(Lust, Caution), Takeshi Kaneshiro(House of Flying Daggers) and Zhao Wei(So Close).


And to top it off. This film is directed by John Woo. Bloody era plus masterful action director, equals a bloody historic action epic!

Well at least that's what I was expecting.

Red Cliff was originally released in China as two movies. Each with a length of about two hours. For the international audience, the two films where combined and about 90 minutes was trimmed off to form just one movie. And this is the version that we got to see.

I was dismayed a few minutes into the film. As it turns out. This version is dubbed in English. And the dubbing wasn't of good quality. Regardless of that, the film still turned out to be alright. It redeemed itself with the battle scenes. John Woo showing us why he one of the best action director in the world. He was able to show us the battle techniques and formations used in those days and still made it look cool.

This is not the best version of this film. But that says a lot. If a downgraded version of this movie came out rather good. Then just imagine just how much better the original version could be. I'm excited to find out.