“Red Cliff”

Reviewed 4 November 2009 by Ted Faraone

3 ½ stars out of five; $8 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.

PROPAGANDA DISGUISED AS EPIC

“Red Cliff” (actually “Red Cliff II”, the sequel) is a beautifully shot propaganda film disguised as an epic.  It is not as heavy handed as any of Michael Moore’s oeuvre or Leni Riefenstal’s but it is propaganda nonetheless.  In Chinese with English subtitles, pic promotes themes of national unity, bravery in battle, family values, brains over brawn, and childhood obedience.

Action centers on the battle of Red Cliff in 208 A.D.  Auds may be astonished at the sophistication of Chinese armies at the height of the Roman Empire when catapults and swords dominated European battle.  The Chinese used mass archers as a version of today’s concentrated machine gun fire.  They also had explosives, which the good guys put to good effect.

Other than wooden subtitles (one wonders if the Chinese dialogue is any better), main knock against pic is this:  It’s a civil war.  The armies all look the same.  It’s tough at times to tell who is on what side.  Perhaps filmmakers could have sacrificed some verisimilitude in favor of clarity?

Western auds will recognize perhaps only Tony Leung Chiu Wai from Ang Lee’s insufferable “Lust, Caution” among the thesps.  The entirely Asian cast is drawn from China and Taiwan.  In this skein he is cast as Zhou Yu, Viceroy or the Kingdom of East Wu, and leader of its forces.  Master strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) engineers the alliance between his Xu Kingdom led by Liu Bei (You Young) and East Wu following a crushing defeat for the Xu by the forces of Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi), the evil prime minister (think Mussolini) to Emperor Han (Wang Ning). 

It is an open question whether Cao Cao’s ostensible goal to unify China under Emperor Han is real or whether the entire war is a scheme to score with Xiao Qiao (Chiling Lin), the Viceroy’s wife and allegedly China’s most beautiful woman.

The Xu and Wu turn the battle against Cao Cao with a mixture of trickery, spies (notably Sun Shangxiang played by Zhao Wai as sister of Wu leader Sun Quan played by Chiang Chen), ambushes, and familiarity with the weather.  If all this sounds confusing, it is.  Add the similarity of uniforms on both sides and you get something resembling what the battle in “Duck Soup” would look like if it had real money behind it.  Still, pic builds dramatic tension, especially in scenes where Xiao Qiao sneaks off to Cao Cao’s encampment on a sort of Mata Hari mission.  It proves that an army vastly outnumbered must rely on its wits to survive by forcing the opponent to squander his advantages.

To his credit, helmer John Woo has a firm hand at the throttle.  Moments of levity are few but effective.  Tech credits excel, and editing is to the point.  Set design also impresses, but with a budget estimated at $80 US, it had better.  Produced by the Bejing Film Studio with what one believes to be government coin, pic is 142 minutes long and carries no MPAA rating.  However, nothing in it is objectionable for children save, perhaps, for its epic length.

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