Movie Review: Red Cliff

So, supposedly this is the Chinese epic that everyone has been talking about. I am not much of a Chinese movie fan, so I did not even know about this movie until Channel News Asia talked about it a few days after the opening day. From the way people have talked about this movie, I became quite interested, and since I am the kind who falls easily into a movie’s hype, I decided to go and check it out.

Unfortunately, I am not too satisfied with the movie. I have seen other Chinese movies like Hero, Crouching Tiger, and another one whose title I cannot remember, and I quite like these movies. They were entertaining, the acting was really good, and the storyline is distinctively Chinese and in line with our culture. Red Cliff however, fell flat. Maybe I had too high an expectation, thanks to the hype. 

Let me share with you why I don’t like Red Cliff. Firstly, the acting was a bit forced. It’s like watching a group of actors who’s trying to portray wisdom through the expression on their faces, which ends up looking unnatural and fake. I’m sure the historical persons these characters are based on were really wise and really intelligent, but what’s with the long gazes and squinted brows? There were just too many of those throughout the movie. Secondly, there are so many scenes that can be omitted, but I think they were not edited out simply for the purpose of showing off the CG. Yes, it is important to show how large Chao Chao’s recruited navy was, but that can be done in one flowing shoot instead of putting two similar scenes about the boats back to back. All these extra scenes make the movie lose momentum, and I got so fed up and impatient. Yes I get it, huge army vs. much smaller army, get on with it already. Thirdly, some of the dialogues don’t really get anywhere; perhaps the meaning or the philosophy behind it was lost in translation. Or perhaps they should just improve the dialogues and cut the facial close ups. Fourthly, the battle scenes kind of sucked. It may just be me, but after Two Towers and Return of the King, I compare any battle scenes to the ones in these two movies. The tortoise strategy is an interesting Chinese war strategy that I can fully respect, but the execution of it is very rough. It just doesn’t flow well enough for the movie, and worse, it made the movie look amateurish and hard to believe that such a strategy can actually work in a real battle (sorry, John Woo).

The saving grace of this movie is the history behind the storyline. I had no clue whatsoever about the story or the characters prior to watching the movie, but at the end of it, it perked me enough to find out more about the series (Three Kingdoms), and to anticipate the sequel.

I certainly hope non-Chinese audience or those who are unfamiliar with Chinese history will be interested in this movie, despite its shortcomings and overhype. I am looking forward to the sequel, simply because I have no time to read the books, and I want to know how the story unfolds.