ANALYSIS: Red Cliff 1 & 2 - Epic commercial blockbuster or unqualified historical disaster?

Red Cliff: An epic of commercial proportions?

The following is an analysis of both Red Cliff instalments as released in Asia.

I would not normally like to touch on movies that I do not like, but there are some that are so awful that it rankles, and I feel the need to make a statement even if everyone else seems to think differently.

As a film critic and producer/director/writer wannabe, there are certain rules that one has to generally accept when reviewing a film.

The first is that movies are inherently flawed. Even with all the attention to detail and continuity, the film is bound to miss a beat somewhere. Then there is the artistic license to change the storyline and plot details to improve viewing pleasure and dramatic impact.

There is no point in scrutinising every little thing just to see if the movie makes sense. If that's what you want, you can visit online forums on the movie or just watch Mythbuster.

The other thing is that film adaptations are generally not as good as the original yarn. As such, it is common for fans and readers of a novel, manga or otherwise to find fault with their respective film adaptations.

The historical epic Red Cliff, directed by John Woo no less, is essentially such an adaptation of the Three Kingdoms' Battle of Red Cliffs.

I'm not going to mince my words. I grew up on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and I don't like John Woo's version, but that's not the reason I'm breaking the silence.

My beef is with the incredibly flippant motivations and excuses, given by the producers of the two films, for various events written into the storyline.

First they announced that the films would adhere more closely to true historical events - a poorly disguised attempt to give Tony Leung star billing, as if he really needed that (see how well he did in Lust, Caution).

Next they threw in Romance legends of Kong Ming 'borrowing arrows' - a bona fide Mythbuster 'candidate' - effectively making that announcement moot.

Nevermind that.

They needed a stronger female presence, so they threw the beautiful Xiao Qiao (Lin Chiling) right smack into the final confrontation between Cao Cao and the allied forces.

Do we really need to insult the history of Three Kingdoms like that? I can think up a possible dozen extra appearances for Lin Chiling without her having to take centrestage and ruining one of history's great literatures, or records for that matter.

Much ado about Tony: Suddenly the role of Chou Yu takes on a higher plane of importance; though to be fair, Tony Leung plays the part excellently.

They say she can't act: In honesty, she's beautiful enough that she doesn't really need to; but then they made her act the heroine....

Worthy adversary or loyal ally? The chemistry between Takeshi Kaneshiro's Kong Ming and Chou Yu seems a little suspect and sometimes a little contrived.

Fallen at the hands of a woman: Zhang Fengyi plays a lecherous Cao Cao who allows a woman to ruin his plans.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is originally a tale about brotherhood. In that respect, getting John Woo of Bullet in the Head fame to helm Red Cliff seems an inspirational and foolproof choice.

Which is why I find inexplicable that the roles for Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are so muted, while the best lines seem to fall to Tony Leung's Chou Yu and Takeshi Kaneshiro's Kong Ming.

And it is a two-part epic mind you. No excuses for underdeveloped key characters and storylines.

Chou Yu even gets to be the one to graciously let Cao Cao go scot free. Guan Yu and Kong Ming must be turning in their graves - since it is the former who does so in Romance, while the latter wanted to execute the man who allowed Cao Cao to fight another day.

And finally, though this has more to do with production issues, I would have thought the Chinese had learnt from the failures of Chen Kaige's The Promise and Tsui Hark's The Legend of Zu. Bad CGI just don't cut it in modern blockbusters.

On an added note, wire-fu - especially bad wire-fu - need to be kept off non-wuxia films.

Red Cliff was made with the sole intention to sell popcorn, not to honour the history and tradition of The Three Kingdoms - and a lot of popcorn it did sell.

However, the discerning audience needs to recognise that The Three Kingdoms (Chronicles or Romance) is in itself an epic tale, and the film makers borrowed on that to create a predictably epic and successful two-part movie.

I feel deeply disappointed that an epic story on brotherhood bonds could be so badly reinterpreted by a director like John Woo, who once made his name precisely on films that featured such themes of brotherhood.

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FEATURE: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights

Before The English Patient there was Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights

One of my favourite movies of all time is The English Patient. It was this film that introduced me to the immense talents of Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

But The English Patient was not the first pairing of the two actors. Nor was it the first story to feature a tragic hero fallen from grace by an all-consuming passion.

For that we have to go back to the literary classic of Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights. That is actually the title of the Paramount Pictures film adaptation to Wurthering Heights the novel (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owned the rights to the original title due to their 1939 version).

In a sense, it is an apt title for the film, for it acknowledges the genius of Emily Brontë, the lesser known sister of Charlotte Brontë, whose own novel Jane Eyre stands as one of the most famous in English literature.

Likewise, this 1992 film adaptation was also not quite as well known as the blockbusters of its day, and yet there are several reasons to try and catch it, not least because it was Ralph Fiennes' film debut, and his role as the tragic villain Heathcliff led to later reknown in his portrayal of Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List.

The film begins with a young unnamed woman (Emily Brontë played by Sinéad O'Connor), who visits an abandoned and rundown manor in the moors, and imagines a tale of what might have been....

Without going into detail on the story, Wikipedia probably describes both the film and novel best, as a narrative that "tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them."

Unlike earlier versions, the story in Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights spans the full novel, telling the tale of not only Heathcliff (Ralph Fiennes) and Catherine (Juliette Binoche) but also of their descendants. Earlier versions had only focused on Heathcliff and Catherine (the senior).

What makes this film a must watch is also what makes the novel a must read. It is the story itself, so unusual in its dark, almost Gothic setting - and the terrible, terrible destructive love shared between the two lead characters.

The novel, as is the film, is everything that is negative; it stands against the goodness of man. Again and again the word 'destroy', for it destroys - the lives of those who have the misfortune of being related to Heathcliff and Catherine. And yet despite the inherent selfishness of the two lovers, how can one not realise the deep love and pain suffered by them? How can one not empathise?

"I am Heathcliff," Catherine Earnshaw proclaims, while Heathcliff himself thinks likewise.

"How can I live without my love; how can I live without my soul?" is his lament.

And of course, the performance of Ralph Fiennes - Ralph Fiennes IS Heathcliff. It is almost impossible after watching this version, to imagine any other actor portraying the dark, vengeful anti-hero.

Binoche too, is excellent in her dual roles of Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter, also called Catherine, or Cathy. The chemistry is also exemplary. My only grouse perhaps is that both Fiennes and Binoche looked a tad too old for their characters during younger days.

Set against the backdrop of a dark, lonely moor; and accompanied by a haunting Scottish soundtrack, Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights is the definitive version of Brontë's novel, a classic hailed by some critics as superior even to Jane Eyre.

You may not have the patience for the novel, but watch it, for it is indeed, Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights.


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Exclaimations for:! Outstanding Storytelling: The story was all Brontë's - but kudos too to the film for managing to squeeze in the entire novel. The 1939 version only focused on the first generation story.
! Outstanding Actor: Ralph Fiennes IS Heathcliff. Period.
! Outstanding Soundtrack: The Soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is sad, haunting, and seems to whistle over the empty, desolate moors - a perfect blend with the Gothic elements in the cinematography.
Query for:? Missing Scene: In one famous scene, Heathcliff's reaction to overhearing Catherine's declaration that she was too good for him, seems to be conspicuously missing. Is it also not in the novel? But even then, visually it should still have been in the film.