English title: Red Cliff
Rating: PG
Running time: 150 minutes
Opens: 11 July 2008, Now Showing
Some info:
1) Wiki
2) IMDB Profile
3) Official Site (Chinese)
One of the most expensive movies in Chinese movie making industry. One of the biggest cast put together for this epic production. One of the most hyped about movie of the year. But how does it turn out? I find that it’s a bit of a letdown, even for a person who only knows a little about the actual historical events or the novel based on the same history.
I don’t exactly know how historical events eventually led to the part in which the movie starts its setting in, but the first major retreat operation undertaken by 刘备 and his men was already a little letdown in my opinion. I don’t quite know about the rest, but at least I know 赵云’s rescue of the little boy is supposed to be super heroic and awesome. It turns out he only fought off quite a number of ordinary soldiers, when I think he’s supposed to be dealing with bigger shots than just those. Well at least this time they got it right, as the wife really jumped into the well, unlike the other movie starring Andy Lau. Hah.
After that, it’s mostly a lot of talking with some battle scenes here and there. After all, this part 1 is just to show events that lead up to the huge epic battle which only appear in part 2. So, it’s a lot of ground work laying in this movie, thus it’s not hard to believe I found it a little boring during the course of the movie. But oh well, I can imagine reading the actual historical events in text will be a lot worse [for me at least].
I don’t know how the original things were, but I kinda found that the movie isn’t trying to make any particular character extra heroic or glorifying him. It’s as though it’s trying to make everyone equally important. Even the genius 诸葛亮 didn’t really stand out very much. I’m pretty sure there’s got to be some people who are more outstanding in their various ways.
I’m also pretty sure the place isn’t named 赤壁 to begin with [but only because of the battle], so 曹操 got a really advanced map since it has an exact location of it. 周瑜 is just as good, knowing exactly where the battle will take place! Woohoo, but I guess such things can’t really be avoided, cos it’ll be hard to pinpoint an exact location without having a proper name. Ah well.
On to other things. I thought some of the scenes were like super obvious that there were taken in many parts/locations. The lighting and environment of the place sometimes changes a bit when the angles change even though it’s supposed to be 1 continuous fight or battle or whatever. Hehz, felt really weird though.
I don’t know how many of the ships are for real [use of effects is evidently present alongside for many other scenes not only for ships], but some of them do look really nice. Much money and time must have been put into them, only to be burnt later on? Kinda wasted. Haha.
Lastly, since the media likes to talk about 林志玲, I thought I’ll just a bit here as well. No doubt I could see that she puts in a lot of effort in her role, but many scenes just seem unnatural, which to be fair, is quite common for many newcomers. If she’s still going to appear in part 2 of this movie, then probably I guess it’s gonna be something like this as well. Oh well, if she’s going to continue with more acting roles in the future, hopefully there’ll be some improvements by then. Heh.
I’m a little disappointed with this one. My take: 6/10. Hopefully part 2 will be a better watch, as it’s supposed to be the highlight, and the battle that eventually to be named 赤壁.
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