AFF09–Red Cliff (2009)

Directed by: John Woo
Written by: John Woo/Khan Chan/Cheng Kuo/Heyu Sheng

I’m always a little bit up in the air about going to the Austin Film Festival. It’s the least expensive festival that I know of, but it kinda shows in lack of organization. But I succumbed and here I am, reviewing movies for you.

The first film of my Festival was Red Cliff, the new John Woo film and his first Chinese feature since Hard Boiled back in 1992. It’s also his first since Hard Boiled with that film’s co-star, Tony Leung.

War is an ugly thing. One side defeats another side, but no one really wins. Not the generals who (sometimes) feel like murderers. Not the families. Certainly not the young men who are used as cannon fodder.

In 208 AD, the Han Dynasty was coming to a close. Han knew this and was easily led into a war with the other warlords of China by his prime minister, Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang).

What neither of them expect is that all of the warlords of the Southlands will band together to fight Cao Cao and his men.

Chief among those warlords are Zhou Yu (Leung) and Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro, whom you may remember from Fantastic Fest’s K-20). General Zhou is a special target for Cao Cao because he is married to the woman the prime minister has been in love with for years.

The warlords are hopelessly outnumbered and there is no real way for them to fend off the impending doom that they all feel.

So, of course, things start to go their way.

There’s something very odd about this movie. From the opening (which contained a very strange and English voiceover explaining what was going on at the time) to about three quarters through its 2 1/2 hour runtime, it almost played as a fantasy with comic undertones. Huh?! Wasn’t this a war movie? Wasn’t it trying to show us the horrors of war?

Well, yes. And it does to an extent. But there is a BIG element of fantasy going on here. The warlords basically dance as they are fighting. They are very nearly indestructible. They dodge spears and arrows as if they were water. (One even grabs a spear out of the air!)

Then, at some point, it very nearly changes tactics. It becomes the war drama that we all expected…with lots and lots of fire and explosions.

Was it up to Woo’s standards? Well, lately, yes. This means that it’s not a great film, unfortunately. It is, however, fun and never boring. For 2 1/2 hours I was fully entertained the entire time. Sure, it wasn’t the movie I was expecting, but it was a decent time with some decent acting and some great action. Although I could have done without all of the digital stuff that made it look like a slightly low-budget Japanese film.

Worth checking out on a slow day. Just don’t expect it to change your life.