Red Cliff (R, 2008)

This Chinese film takes place in the third century A.D. and concerns the military campaign of a Prime Minister warlord's invasion of two southern regions.  The PM just wants to invade the independent areas of the country to get them under his control, and he easily convinces the weak young emperor to approve his war.  The leaders of the two southern regions form an alliance to the surprise of the PM in order to combat the massive imperial army.

I didn't recognize any of the actors in the film but further investigation shows that several actors had parts in House Of Flying Daggers, Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  The director was John Woo (Face Off, Mission: Impossible II) and he did a fine job.  The picture and sound quality were good, special effects were pretty seamless (some scenes included CG assistance by necessity, but it was head and shoulders better than pretty much any non-Hollywood film I've seen), and in accordance with what I presume must be a national law, there was a obligatory wirework for some of the martial arts.  It's rated R, but I wouldn't call it a "hard R": it has one sex scene but no naughty bits (not even a little bit naughty) shown on screen; definitely had violence (this is ancient warfare) and showed impalement but not much blood or gore, all things considered; not really harsh language that comes to mind.  I'd think it should be more like a PG-13.


A bulk of the screen time was used in the battles which had significantly cool military tactics and individual badassery 'a la Lord Of The Rings. We do get to see some interactions between the characters as well and I liked that I liked some of these guys (particularly the military strategist of the underdogs, who we meet early in the film) based on the personal choices they make. I thought a lot of the tactics employed in the battles were really clever and the fighting was really good too. The fighting did get kind of hard to follow especially in the big battle at the end, so if you're tired or if for any other reason your attention span is compromised, you might want to watch this another day.  If you liked 300 (for anything other than the sexiness), 13 Assassins or Troy, then I'm pretty sure you'll like this movie.  For me it's an easy 4 stars.  I found it thoroughly enjoyable but not life-changing.