movie review: red cliff

synopsis:
With a budget of US$80million, "Red Cliff" is the most expensive Asian-financed film to date. The movie is based on historical records of "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdom" rather than the novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdom". In the early third century, the land of Wu is invaded by the warlord Cao Cao and his soldiers. The ruler of Wu, Sun Quan (Chang Chen), calls on the rival warlord Liu Bei (You Yong) for help, but their two armies are still badly outnumbered. However, the strategists Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) and Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) see that Cao Cao's army is unused to battling on the sea. With 200,000 men, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang defeat Cao Cao's army at the Yangtze River.

my say:

this movie if full of bloody scenes, lots of blood. even though it's a battle film, i still do feel that there's a little bit way too much of violence and blood elements in this film. there's too much of it, such that i've grown used to it and had no reaction to those scenes at the later part of the film. nevertheless, the interesting storylines and goodlooking casts, did catch my attention and didn't put me to sleep. i have to commend on john woo's portray of the characters in the film. there's a lot of personalities and details in most of the characters. i still feel that the actor as guanyu didn't do a very good job, as his voice wasn't harsh and man enough for the character. in one particular scene, when zhang fei fought bare handed with the cao's troops, i feel that it was a little bit over done. althought the director's intention was to show zhangfei's manliness and courage, it was done in a too layman and direct manner i should say. the director had also cleverly added some funny moments when the audience can view a more cheerful sight in the warring time, well, some surprises here and there.