a5c7b9f00b 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. The version released for American audiences was apparently cut down from its original released version in China (or really it was two parts and then edited from that). The good news for people in the big cities where the film is currently playing (NY/LA) and are worried about this, aside from the opening scenes that include some clunky English narration to explain some things (some of it a little over-explained actually), it doesn't feel compromised. People can follow along with this version- epic enough at 150 minutes- and get the full story, about a war that happened two thousand years ago in China, where the Emperor, egged on by his power-hungry Prime Minister Cao-Cao, was going to take over the east and southern sections of the country not yet dominated by his rule, and the ensuing battles between Cao-Cao and the two tribes, led by Sun Quan and Liu Bei.<br/><br/>Coming from John Woo one always hopes for the best action-packed work, even as his American work has been mixed at best (sometimes decent like Mission: Impossible 2, and other times mediocre like another war film, Windtalkers). But with Red Cliff, he has a lot of inspiration from history to make a dynamic story out of these events - and to spend a whole lot of money to make the battles as epic as anything Hollywood could do (the CGI isn't great, but it serves the purpose well enough). Woo's skills as a storyteller keeps things going along without anything too ridiculous, and when he buckles down to get his hordes of extras to get into a battle, it's on: lots of awe-inspiring stunts and fights and swordplay, usually by the charismatic and surprisingly (after so much Wong Kar Wai) tough Tony Leung.<br/><br/>While there are parts of the non-battle scenes that are acted only barely convincingly (or rather just enough to get the scenes going along), and some of the sub-plot involving Zhou-Yu's girl and their relationship and her subsequent pleading to the 'other' to stop the fighting (albeit the latter results in something I rarely ever see: a bad-ass poisoned tea scene), they're perfunctory and serve the action well enough. If you love John Woo's classic action movies and wonder where his game has gone (hell, if you miss his penchant for doves which ends up coming in here pretty strangely), and if you love a good war movie with lots of twists and turns in the strategy and men having to use their wits without technology save for arrows and wind, this is your movie. It's tough, elegant, well-mounted and quite bloody, and the whole history of it is interesting too. Bravo to john woo, he made the Chinese movie like Hollywood style.. people can see amazing visual effect which is like we see on Hollywood movies. We see mostly visual effect used in like futuristic cinematography but this one is used with historical cinematography which made people obsessed to watch it... The story itself is not bad though i don't know any history of three kingdom but the red cliff made me keep watching the movie to learn the story itself...<br/><br/>I must say this is entertaining Hollywood style move but not kind of Oscar type movie...<br/><br/>Cant wait to see the 2nd part.. Anyway is this movie a box office in Asian continent (especially hongkong, taiwan, and china) The spectacular battle scenes are the engorged heart of the delirious adventure. But Woo also gets maximum romantic value from Tony Leung as a war hero married to Chiling Lin as the tea-pouring beauty. The original Hong Kong Version of the first movie runs approx. 145 minutes, the complete International Version 143 minutes. One can do the math. Approx. 50 percent of each movie were cut out.