Liking the look of this!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyLgDcvqVAw
Red Cliff
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stonemaybe
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I feel like I should be rapidly pressing triangle, triangle, triangle, square during that preview. 
Looks good.
Looks good.
"It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
-George Steiner
-George Steiner
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stonemaybe
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I've been waiting for the international release of this one.
It's great to see John Woo doing a film in Asia again, rather than the [mostly] shite he's done since he fled Hong Kong. It's a great shame the original casting for this movie wasn't kept - the film was slated to star both Tony Leung and Chow Yun-Fat, however both pulled out for different reasons (Leung because he was burn't out after Lust, Caution; and Fat because he didn't feel confident with the language). Leung returned to the film, though he was recast in Chow Yun-Fat's role, while Kaneshiro had taken his.
The film was made in two parts, though I wonder if the Western release will simply condense both into one film.
I also prefer the style of action in this film to the fantastical acrobatics of more recent Chinese action/adventure films from the period.
It's great to see John Woo doing a film in Asia again, rather than the [mostly] shite he's done since he fled Hong Kong. It's a great shame the original casting for this movie wasn't kept - the film was slated to star both Tony Leung and Chow Yun-Fat, however both pulled out for different reasons (Leung because he was burn't out after Lust, Caution; and Fat because he didn't feel confident with the language). Leung returned to the film, though he was recast in Chow Yun-Fat's role, while Kaneshiro had taken his.
The film was made in two parts, though I wonder if the Western release will simply condense both into one film.
I also prefer the style of action in this film to the fantastical acrobatics of more recent Chinese action/adventure films from the period.
"For the love of God, Montresor!"
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" - Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" - Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.
It seems that the Western release of this film continues the 'proud' tradition of casual cinematic racism and elitism regarding Asian epics. The Chinese release of this film was actually as two films, for the total running time of four hours. What we have instead are both films reduced to just one, with a further hour and a half cut from the running time. All the battle scenes seem to remain, though anything resembling character development is gone.
Ever since Seven Samurai was butchered for its English language release, Asian films have uniformly received savage cuts on Western releases to reduce the running length and (speciously) to make the stories more understandable to Western audiences. Red Cliff even begins with one of the tackiest American voice-over narration I have ever heard. No-one would dream of making these kinds of cuts to an American film like LOTR etc, yet it seems permissable to do so for a foreign film.
That said - what the film does show is visually spectacular. Despite all of the cuts to story, Red Cliff manages to entertain and to impress. The battles are fantastic, and it's especially great to see a battle sequence filmed without any shaky cam. The characters seem well portrayed, though most of their character has been robbed by the film's absurd truncation. The lack of character development in this release makes the end seem a little lame.
I'd suggest waiting for the inevitable "fully-uncut" DVD release, unless you really want to see the spectacle on the big screen.
Ever since Seven Samurai was butchered for its English language release, Asian films have uniformly received savage cuts on Western releases to reduce the running length and (speciously) to make the stories more understandable to Western audiences. Red Cliff even begins with one of the tackiest American voice-over narration I have ever heard. No-one would dream of making these kinds of cuts to an American film like LOTR etc, yet it seems permissable to do so for a foreign film.
That said - what the film does show is visually spectacular. Despite all of the cuts to story, Red Cliff manages to entertain and to impress. The battles are fantastic, and it's especially great to see a battle sequence filmed without any shaky cam. The characters seem well portrayed, though most of their character has been robbed by the film's absurd truncation. The lack of character development in this release makes the end seem a little lame.
I'd suggest waiting for the inevitable "fully-uncut" DVD release, unless you really want to see the spectacle on the big screen.
"For the love of God, Montresor!"
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" - Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" - Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.