Red Cliff

In 208 AD, Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang), with the Emperor as his puppet, launches a campaign to unify China for his own ends. To achieve this, the Kingdom of Wu and the warlord Liu Bei must be destroyed. This appears to be an easy job, since Cao's army totally outnumbers the opponents. Liu's strategist, Zhuge Liang (Kaneshiro) and Wu's general in command, Zhou Yu (Leung) have to use their combined intelligence to turn history to their advantage. Everything will be decided at Red Cliff.

This is the anticipated return of Chinese director John Woo, known for his stylish action films such as Face/off. Woo manages to make this ancient war epic feel like an action film by turning the battle scenes into spectacular action set pieces.

The cast is full of stars that are quite well-known to Chinese audiences. The lead actors Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) are no stranger to western screens either. Their performances are strong, matching their actions.

The period that the film is based in is called the Three Kingdom Period and is the most loved and most filmed part of Chinese history. This is probably why the film was released in Asia in two parts with a total time of four hours. The overseas version of two and a half hours that we are showing is guaranteed to be more action-packed and exciting.

The film is a carefully done and stylish war film that is definitely worth watching, especially on the big screen. Not to be missed.

Jeffrey Choi