The first chapter of a two-part story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.). In 208 A.D., in the Han Dinasty of China, the tyrannic and greedy Prime Minster Cao Cao forces the reluctant Emperor Han to declare war against the kingdoms of Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the South of China. Cao Cao heads with a mighty army of one million soldiers and attacks Liu Bei. His advisor and war strategist Zhuge Liang heads to South in a diplomatic mission trying to convince Sun Quan to join force with Liu Bei against the powerful warlord. When Zhuge Liang meets the viceroy Zhou Yu, he succeeds in his assignment with the alliance of the two kingdoms against Cao Cao. The armies fight against each other in many battles until the final one in Red Cliff where guile, knowledge and strategy prevail. "Red Cliff" is a film about an episode of Chinese history little-known in the West, the Battle of the Red Cliffs in 208-209 AD, during the decline of the Han Dynasty. It is, however, a familiar story in China, being told in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", one of the classics of Chinese literature. At this period the effective ruler of northern China was the Imperial Chancellor Cao Cao, the actual Emperor Xian being a mere puppet. The country south of the Yangtze River was controlled by two warlords, Sun Quan and Liu Bei. Despite the weakness of the ruling dynasty, the imperial army was still strong, and in 208 Cao Cao launched an invasion of southern China in order to reunite the country and to break the power of the two warlords, who formed an alliance to resist him. The defeat of the imperial army by the allies at the Battle of the Red Cliffs was eventually to lead to the fall of the dynasty and the division of China into three separate states during the so-called "Three Kingdoms period".<br/><br/>The villain of the film is Cao Cao, portrayed as a cruel and arrogant despot. The heroes, however, are not so much Sun Quan and Liu Bei, but their subordinates, Liu Bei's adviser Zhuge Liang and Sun Quan viceroy Zhou Yu, who lead the allied armies against Cao Cao's invasion. (Given the Chinese Communist Party's determination to maintain centralised control over the whole of China, it is perhaps surprising that the film should take the side of those who in the past resisted the imposition of such control and whose victory led to a partition of the country, albeit a temporary one). The two main female characters are Sun Quan's sister Sun Shangxiang, who infiltrates Cao Cao's camp as a spy, and Zhou Yu's wife, Xiao Qiao.<br/><br/>The film was directed by John Woo, best known to Western audiences for action dramas like "Hard Target" and "Mission Impossible 2". "Red Cliff", however, is a quite different sort of film to those. The nearest equivalent in the Western cinema would be the sort of classical epic which Hollywood used to produce in the fifties and sixties, films like "Cleopatra" and "Spartacus" which dealt with the Western contemporaries of the characters portrayed in this film. (The Han dynasty lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD, so was roughly contemporary with the Roman Empire).<br/><br/>Like "Spartacus", "Red Cliff" juxtaposes spectacular battle scenes with scenes showing the private lives of the main characters, and like that film it deals with a seemingly unequal struggle in which the heroes are greatly outnumbered by their adversaries. "Spartacus", however, is a tragic drama which ends in the heroes' defeat, whereas here they are victorious, using guile and strategy to offset the numerical superiority of Cao Cao's army. There is a particularly memorable scene where Zhuge Liang tricks the enemy into shooting over 100,000 arrows into a fleet of boats covered in straw, thus enabling the allies to replenish their supplies of ammunition which were running dangerously low.<br/><br/>One thing this film does have in common with some of Woo's earlier efforts is the use of highly stylised, choreographed action sequences, something exploited by other Chinese directors such as Ang Lee in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and Zhang Yimou in "House of the Flying Daggers". The difference, of course, is that whereas in those films this style of film-making was used in the context of individual hand-to-hand combat, here it is used to depict large-scale battle scenes between two great armies or navies. (The Battle of the Red Cliffs was fought both on land and on the river).<br/><br/>I should point out that I have only seen the version of the film released in the West and which runs to some 150 minutes; Woo's original two-part version, totalling over four hours in length, was only released in Asia. I can, however, say that the shorter version is an excellent film, combining (as did the best of the Hollywood epics) brilliant spectacle with an intelligent, thoughtful script. When I reviewed Baz Luhrmann's "Australia", I concluded that the epic spirit is alive and well and living in Australia. On the basis of "Red Cliff" I can add to that conclusion " . and in China". 8/10 Red Cliff is a huge undertaking: featuring massive set pieces and a surprising lack of CGI this is stirring stuff which works very well.<br/><br/>From the opening scenes to the closing John Woo concentrates on delivering a historical epic with pomp.<br/><br/>With good insight to the politics and intrigues that lead to the battles with excellent central characters this was for my money as good as Hero and others from recent years.<br/><br/>If you enjoy epic new Chinese cinema with real traditional values you will really enjoy this; if you enjoyed Nraveheart or Arn you will definitely enjoy this.<br/><br/>The battle scenes are quite explicit for a Chinese film - but not a JOhn Woo film - but it is mainly spurting blood and we did not find it grotesque.<br/><br/>Overall the scale of Red Cliff and the set pieces make this a winner - definitely worth the view. Red Cliff exudes a physical grandiosity that few movies of the past 20 years have attempted–no matter that Woo, even at his best, is still more at ease with down-and-dirty action than epic pageantry. Due to the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937 scenes containing violence to animals have to be cut in the UK. Therefore both versions, the international cut and the original cut - both available on DVD in the UK - were censored accordingly. You can find a comparison between the cut international version (UK) and the uncut international version here. and a comparison between the cut original version (UK) and the uncut original version here. In order to make the whole project much more attractive for international audiences, an International Version was created, that features both Red Cliff movies cut into one movie. Producer Terence Chang said the following: "We wanted to make a Hollywood blockbuster in Chinese that would appeal to non-Asian audiences as well. We worked very hard to create a version of the film that maintains the integrity of the action and character development of the story, while excising some of the cultural details that could be considered unnecessary for Western audiences not intimately familiar with the historical mythology." a5c7b9f00b How to Train Your Dragon tamil dubbed movie downloadDeath Calls full movie in hindi free download hd 1080pBirth of a Team tamil pdf downloadNo Ordinary Family in hindi movie downloadthe 976 Ways to Say I Love You downloadPower Rangers full movie in hindi free download hd 1080pThe Girl with Blue Eyes tamil dubbed movie free downloadEdgar and Jane in hindi download free in torrentEpisode 1.139 download torrentBlue Wave Marshal, Valeos movie mp4 download
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