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Chi bi (2008) More at IMDbPro »
41 out of 59 people found the following comment useful :-

Stunning Historical Epic, 12 August 2008
Author: IncludingTheStars from United States
This review is of the Chinese DVD Release of the 1st film only... I cannot understand how the previous poster could feel that way about this gorgeous epic. Everything they said they hated were things I thought were well done, and wonderful about the film. Of all the people I've shared this DVD with, they've all thought it was an amazing movie also.
Ever camera shot was gorgeous. The angles were unique, without wasted punch-ins or b-roll. It's rare to find films so tastefully shot. The color was stunning, and the interpretation of the classic tale was unique and never disappointing.
Meanwhile, With all the characters, the actors each held such a powerful presence. It's very tough to develop any character singularly while you have so many important characters with their own mythos and chronicles, but each actor really held up to their image and that of the character. Kaneshiro is a very unique version of Zhuge which caught me off guard at first, but appreciated after his scene w/ the Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu was never a character I've cared for, but here, he's likable and strong. The best "fresh" interpretation though was that of Guan Yu. Instead of being "just another" honourable and strong warrior, he's rather a warrior-scholar, more intelligent, and more personality than ever before.
My only true quarrel is that it ends prematurely (that is, until we see the 2nd half in 2009). I just wish they could have done the whole saga instead of this little piece.
Thank you John Woo for one of the finest Three Kingdom movies ever! I believe this is a great direction for your talents! You've woven the action you're so famous for with a deep, heartfelt classic tale! Wonderful job!
46 out of 76 people found the following comment useful :-

A Nutshell Review: Red Cliff, 12 July 2008
Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore
A friend of mine revealed to me that John Woo acknowledged parallels between characters in his movies, and characters from the Three Kingdom era, and that General Zhao Yun was one of Woo's personal favourites. This admiration for General Zhao's qualities cannot be more obvious when it is he who opens the first battle proper, with a very familiar character episode involving the rescue of the infant son (and future lord) of his master Liu Bei, thereby sealing his reputation of valor, earning admiration even from enemy Cao Cao. Fans of Liu Bei's camp will undoubtedly cheer at the appearances of his sworn brothers General Guan Yu (who is worshiped as a Deity until this very day, and remains one of my favourite characters besides Zhao Yun) and General Zhang Fei, whose gruffness translates to instant war-ready prowess. While Liu's army is clearly routed in a military loss, it explained the dilemma of Liu's leadership. One which is based on sincerity, a quality which persuaded his chief military strategist and genius all round Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to join his cause, but one which lacked military strength in numbers, despite having some of the best generals of the time under his leadership.
Which of course Cao Cao admires and probably is envious about, given his superior strength in numbers came from surrendering armies, whose loyalty remains questionable, and of course with individual generals who can't surpass the abilities of those from Liu. Playing the king like a puppet and having him issue a decree for permission to pursue Liu Bei who has fled southwards, he sets his sights also on warlord Sun Quan, for a more personal reason akin to the story of Helen of Troy. Zhuge Liang, knowing their current weakness, seeks an alliance between the armies of Liu and Sun Quan, and this forms most of the first half, where he had to play envoy to cajole and persuade, especially in convincing Sun Quan's most trusted adviser Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) that war is inevitable and they should form a win-win partnership.
And here's where great minds think alike, and watching both Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang do a friendly pit against each other is nothing short of amazing, where so little says so much. It helps of course that both Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro have been paired up as leading men on screen before, in Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express and in Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Confession of Pain too, lending some much established and credible chemistry as men who share admiration in each other's ability, especially when Zhou Yu seemed to have a fairer balance between fighting skill and intellect. With one side having highly disciplined soldiers with good morale, and the other having renowned generals to be leaders, it doesn't take a genius to realize the advantages gained in fending off a common enemy together.
The fight sequences were pure spectacle, with old school wire work combined with technological wizardry to showcase some large scale battle sequences at a macro level, or to highlight the immense naval numbers that Cao Cao brings to battle. Formations and strategies take centerstage in a first major confrontation on land, where one gets to see John Woo's interpretation of Zhuge Liang's "ba-gua" (8 stratagems) strategy, made more entertaining through the continuation of what we have already seen in each general's fighting ability, each given a unique style befitting the characters in folklore, such as Guan Yu and his Guan Dao (Green Dragon Crescent Blade) and Zhao Yun (Hu Jun) and his spear. There's the usual bellowing cape and slow motion in Woo's signature style, but these were kept to a minimum, as are the pigeons (though they do make an appearance, but serving some purpose).
Perhaps it is the success of the fight sequences that had left some lamenting for more, but bear in mind this is just but the first half of the movie, setting things up. The major war sequences of course are left in the second movie which we will get to see come early next year. Like The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, expect the next movie to go on an all out assault. I felt that already is a fair balance of drama and action here, especially when this installment has to cover a broad base given numerous characters, which should provide fans (of Three Kingdoms) something to cheer about. Chang Chen provides his Sun Quan with enough self-doubt, and in a small story arc has to seek his inner confidence ala King Leonidas in 300, while model Lin Chiling's much touted debut movie appearance, was limited to just a few scenes of lovey-dovey moments, which unfortunately for audiences in Singapore, her sex scene with Tony Leung got edited out in order for distributors to get a PG rating to put more bums on seats.
I had wondered how Tony Leung would have faired as Zhuge Liang instead of Kaneshiro, but felt that the musical chairs casting somehow became a blessing in disguise. Kaneshiro's good looks might have made some doubt his ability to play the smartest man alive during the era, but he did an excellent job in bringing out the humility and self-deprecation of the man whose never flashy nor overconfident of his abilities, and one who swears his talents to his lord Liu Bei. Tony Leung on the other hand brought about a fine balance of brains and brawn to the Zhou Yu character, whom I suspect in Woo's version, would be credited with much success for his part in Red Cliff, rather than the accolades all going to Zhuge Liang. After you see the reliable Tony Leung in this role, you'll know for sure that Chow Yun-Fatt could probably never had brought the kind of gravitas Leung brought to the role.
Red Cliff is hands down highly recommended
30 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-

Half and half, 13 July 2008
Author: travellervn from Singapore
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
In my own opinion, this movie is full of "half and half". It's claimed to be based on history (not the fiction "Romance of Three Kingdoms") however characters are hilarious, not serious as great politicians should be. It's supposed to be a movies with battlefields and strategies however parts with personal lifestyles are more than that. So, it's neither an entertainment movie (have so many killings and bloods) nor a serious movie about war (have so many jokes).
Characters of this movie are like from a TV series. Generals showed no special skill in fighting but can manage to kill all of enemy's soldier. Zhao Yun stood carelessly in the middle of a battle to persuade Liu Bei's wife to leave. All the weapons are put on Guan Yu's blade so that he can easily put them out. By a trivial shake, Guan Yu's can escape from all of enemy soldier's blade pointing to him. Zhang Fei crushed into the enemy with no weapon in hand. Zhou Yu used his own body to take an arrow for someone, and let the arrow stick at his heart's side. Wei's generals chasing a girl into a bunch of dusts without any doubts.
Nonetheless, officers are not better. After running away from Cao Cao, Shu's officers gave trivial analysis for the situation. All officers in Wu behaved like children during the discussion with ZhuGe Liang: noisy, messy, and no serious arguments. Wu's army was described as highly disciplined, but the general, Zhou Yu, could stop the training halfway to talk to a farmer and his servant. Zhou Yu was described as having a sharp ear but could not hear the tiger coming from behind. Again, Zhou Yu later gave a trivial lesion about the rope when other characters, big heroes, were listening seriously. Sun Guan could kill a tiger without any specific skill and training.
In other word, the director might want too much and go to nowhere. He might want a movie closed to history but his characters are not. He might want human-like heroes but his characters show no specific skill in both fighting and thinking to be real heroes/leaders.
23 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-

Three Kingdom Cliff Notes, 14 July 2008
Author: lyx-1 from Hong Kong
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
***Warning...may contain spoilers, but movie is pretty "spoilt" as it is...*****
I really wanted to like and support this movie. Three Kingdoms is one of the most fascinating historic period with lots of compelling tales of political intrigue, plot twists, larger than life characters, fantastical, famous battles, mind-boggling tactics and the novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, fleshed out the historical structure further with fascinating myths, legendary details, etc....it is very difficult to go "wrong" with this material, and yet John Woo has chosen to chuck most of it away and dumb it all down for us.
The battle scenes were visually stimulating enough, and are the best parts of the movie, so savour them! What is interesting is to see the magnificence of the formations and tactics described in the books all meticulously CGIed for us.
Overall, this is a big budget production, and it does show in the lavish sets, costumes, impressive battle mobilization, etc. This is where I awarded the movie 6/10.
Forget the acting, the characters, the cringe-worthy dialogue, playing footsie with history (Liu Bei was actually rather cunning and he wove grass shoe soles while he lived under Cao Cao to hide his intelligence and ambition, he isn't the clueless good guy as portrayed), the insipid and totally pointless, pathetically contrived sex, the incredibly asinine jokes and lame puns ("fan" and "staying cool") stretched to unbelievable limits, the WTF? anecdotes (the stolen ox, the music improvization, and "Meng Meng", the baby horse).
Unbelievable!! The middle is a waste of time - there is so much more to add and to say, yet only extreme cinematic silliness and facile character portraits prevail. The contemporary equivalent of the three rulers are say, Mao, Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat Sen and their capable deputies, not to mention the brilliant women like the Soong sisters, can anyone imagine Zhou En- Lai spending his spare time during a period of war against the Japanese or Nationalists teaching children's songs to kids in school or writing calligraphy that insults his opponents???
The original texts are so rich with tactical details, ruthless, complex and brilliant characters and unpredictable plot twists, it would have made a far more interesting film the likes of LOTR. I wish Peter Jackson directed this gem, not John Woo. It's as if someone dumbed down and diluted the LOTR trilogy, into ....Narnia.
If you're looking for a more authentically "Chinese" film about the glory and horrors of war, brotherhood (not just between the 3 characters but the heart-wrenching element of civil warring, Chinese vs. Chinese, etc.), treachery, betrayal, love, honour, watch "Warlords". One of the best films ever...epic, complex, realistic, emotionally engaging and unforgettable. Red Cliff comes across as an epic farce in comparison to Warlords.
15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-

With enough patience to stay in your seat, a good watch but a little disappointing, 29 July 2008
Author: bbbgut from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I am one of the billion fans of the Three Kingdom novels, story as well as hundreds episode long TV shows made about it before. And I was really excited to see a 60 million dollar movie being made on the battle of Chi Bi. But it's not the classic it could've been.
Don't let your previous John Woo experiences like Face Off or MI2 fool you. This movie is deeply in the Asian style of making. Things to look for are slower pace, beautiful scenery/Mis-en-scene, cool Asian music, a lot of metaphors, lots of fighting (everybody loves them!), awful extras...
First off, the pace is so so slow. I am a patient viewer and know when directors have to go slow to make an impact with the story, but I find some problems with pacing with this movie especially with war scenes. For example are the scenes with the shields reflecting sunlight. We got the point! The shields are a clever move, but you don't have to basically repeat 2 shots (soldiers turning their shield, the horses go wild) twenty times.
Cinematography is pretty good in this movie. I said pretty good because while it looks good, it is bad compared to the likes of Fearless or Hero, while it has a lot more to work with than those movies. Computer graphics are not the best but enough for a pass. The flying pigeon scene is a great idea.
The musical score in this movie is interesting. I feel it's a little Western influenced because of the symphony/violin sounds besides the heavy drums and flute. Other than that the music is great. However they could probably utilized the use of musical themes more.
I don't particularly like the casting choices for Guan Yu and Liu Bei. Liu Bei is a royal family member filled with kindness, and I thought the actor has little elegance (or anything royal-like) in his look, and look is important for a character with less chance to be portrayed. You can understand my point when comparing him with the actor playing Sun Quan. Guan Yu is basically a saint-like warrior in the story. His look alone has a lot of characteristics (a large man with a graceful look, spreads fear on the battlefield but is a symbol of safety for his people...) that I think the actor's appearance is not deep enough to portray.
The highlights of this movie are the interaction between Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu. Their first encounter is an awesome sequence. Not many words are said but Zhuge Liang fully understand Zhou Yu's character through his acting toward the farmers and his soldiers. This scene is Asian filmography at its best. It shows soldiers preparing for war yet somehow the slow pace works, not many words are spoken but great music fills in the space, and the character of Zhou Yu's is fully brought out to the audience. The scene of the 2 characters playing music is also great, but I feel the repeated shots of the person's face through the candles get boring.
On a similar note, I like these two actors. Kaneshiro Takeshi did some very good face acting to portray well the wittiness that his look would normally lack, as it is a significant feature of Zhuge Liang's characteristics. He also does well in comedic moments. Definitely upped a level from House of Flying Daggers. Leung Chiu Wai is a veteran and he plays Zhou Yu very well, he can be calm or determined, clever or ass kicking. Also they have good synergy and that's important since they are the two main characters.
"Forced" scenes: - The sex scene- man sexing up his wife before going to a deadly battle...300 anyone? And it's way too long for a sex scene that's not that raunchy. - Tiger hunting scene: too long, some blurry shots and bad editing make it obvious that the tiger is from Discovery Channel. This is a typical lame Asian move when they force a metaphorical scene.
I'm a little annoyed with the final fight sequence. Here's a little info so you can be on my page: Cao Cao has 700,000 soldiers, and the good guys got more than 30,000 heads... There are 2000 cavaliers trapped in your formation, CRUSH THEM. I don't like how they focus too much on the cinematic effect (badass battle at the end of the movie) and make it unrealistic as well as too long. Letting ALL your best generals going SOLO against the enemy may make a heroic scene, but only idiots would do it in real life. And if it takes that long to kill 2000, how will you do against the 680,000 that's left? However I give props to John Wu for a courageous and excellent interpretation of the Ba Qua formation (for your information, nobody really knows how to do it so he's quite brave to try)
If you're looking for amazing fighting or choreography, go to Seven Swords. I like their decision to make the moves in Chi Bi not too fancy because this is war and it comes down to kill or die. Also this is very early in Chinese history (2nd, 3rd century) and realistically martial arts styles are not highly developed yet. There is not a lot of comedy but it is well timed and to the right level as well as effectiveness.
I also find the battle helmets ugly.
Overall I feel like this movie could be 2 hours and more effective than the 2h30min mark it is right now. But it is awesome to finally see a story like the Three Kingdom being put into a production worth its scale. Also the storytelling is great and full of excellent metaphors, the characters got depths and smarts. Of course the brutality of war is brought out well. I believe the second part will be a feast.
27 out of 44 people found the following comment useful :-

Red cliff!, 12 July 2008
Author: helmutty from Singapore
To be honest, I don't really know about the Romance of the three kingdom so I will start my review about the movie with no reference to the Chinese history. I have watched Daniel Lee's Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon and it is just average. I have only seen one movie based on the Romance of the three kingdom. John Woo makes his comeback as a director after so many years. I think it is worth the wait for his highly anticipated movie.
The story: In Singapore, the movie is split into two parts. The second part will be shown next year. This movie is an introduction to the Romance of the three kingdom. The first war starts when the movie starts to hype up those craving to see some good war battles. After the first war, you will get introduction of the characters slowly. After the slightly slow pace, you are treated to another war. The acting is good with the humour. I think model Lin Chiling should be given some credit as she marks the first acting debut in a Chinese blockbuster.
Overall: It has both the talk and the action. I must say that it is one of the recently interesting war movies with extended war battle unlike the other recent war movies. It should be good to watch it in cinema. This movie is good for those who want to know about the Chinese history or those who want to see the Chinese history in action.
10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-

Could Have Been A Higher Cliff For Quite A Decent Epic, 13 July 2008
Author: Archblood from Singapore
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
After John Woo's poor running in Hollywood, particularly with PayCheck starring Ben Affleck, the seasoned Hong Kong director seemed to be humbled, returning back to film making for the Chinese cinema. With Hard Boiled and The Killer being some of his early directorial achievements, Red Cliff may well be the his next Asian hit.
The story is based primarily on the historical records of the Chronicles Of The Three Kingdom with the plot involving the famous Battle Of The Red Cliffs (208 AD) in Ancient China.
The epic's chief villain is the infamous Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) Prime Minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who after seizing much power through manipulation and force, went on to fight against the righteous warlord Liu Bei and his loyal subjects including sworn brothers Zhang Fei (Zang Jisheng) and Guan Yu (Ba Sen Zha Bu) and general Zhao Yun (Hu Jun).
In desperation, Liu Bei enlisted the help of the brilliant strategist, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to persuade Sun Quan (Chang Chen), Emperor of Eastern Wu, into an alliance before Cao Cao's army could completely eliminate his forces. The ensuring event led to the important battle in the Three Kingdom's records.
The stellar cast for Red Cliff also included Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Sun Quan's loyal strategist, Zhou Yu, one of the lead characters in the movie.
Supporting roles are played by Zhao Wei as the warrior princess and sister of Sun Quan, Sun Shangxiang. Taiwanese sex symbol, Lin Chi-ling starred as Zhou Yu's wife, Xiao Qiao who's historically famous for her extraordinary beauty that attracts even the lusty attention of Cao Cao. Overall, the roster of mostly Chinese stars (for the exception of Japanese celebrity Nakamura Shido as Gan Xing, general of Zhou Yu) succeeds in bringing Three Kingdom's character's to life.
Of course, what's an ancient epic without the necessary sword-and-bow battle scenes? Red Cliff's moments of bloodshed involving spear bearing soldiers and armour clad warriors is the main entertainment, obvious reminiscent of fierce combat seen in contemporary Hollywood films of past years including The Lord Of The Rings, Kingdom Of Heaven and even 300 (the Three Kingdom plot's also about a numerically inferior force against a bigger army).
However, the cinematography, decently done though, could have improved further..... much, much further. Shortcomings in this department have hindered Red Cliff from achieving an overall result of an excellent historical epic.
Lack of tension can be felt in story's development of the road to all-out war, lacking even in one key scene when Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu attempt to predict Cao Cao's strategy just as the latter was doing it at the same time or in another when Sun Quan was hunting a cunning tiger. Parts of the tiger hunt scene has suspicious signs of footages being borrowed from a wildlife TV program and the progress of other scenes are hampered by unnecessary transitional wipes which bear faint reminders of George Lucas' Star Wars. Maybe that's what Woo's getting on but it's just not working well.
Cinematography for Red Cliff's violent melee is also not working to the best of expectations.
There's a sufficient handful of moments when lone, highly skilled warriors engaged against a bigger number of weaker grunts but other than the usual blade clashes and the liberal spillage of blood, there's not much of an excitement in all these. The actions feel old, drained of fresh ideas and if you are to believe it, the movie's saving grace probably lies in the solid casting and the fact that Red Cliff's a faithful adaptation of popular Chinese history.
Still, because, the current Asian screening of Red Cliff is only part one of a supposedly four hour long movie, it might depend on the later half (reported to be released in January 2009) to complete Red Cliff as the epic it's meant to be.
18 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-

Very entertaining and amazing visual effect!!, 15 August 2008
Author: megalembayung1 from Indonesia
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...
I must say this is entertaining Hollywood style move but not kind of Oscar type movie...
Cant wait to see the 2nd part.. Anyway is this movie a box office in Asian continent (especially hongkong, taiwan, and china)
7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-

A review of the European version, 16 June 2009
Author: freemantle_uk from United Kingdom
After 15 years in Hollywood and making only on decent film (Face/Off) John Woo returns to his Asian roots. Here he get the creative independence he deserves and creates the most successful (and most expensive) ever Chinese films.
The year was 208AD, the Prime Minister Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) has taken control of Northern China and made the Emperor a puppet ruler. But the south is defiance. Lord Liu Bei (Yong You) tries to fight and has excellent general, but is hopelessly outnumbered by Cao Cao forces. He sets out to make an alliance with two other Southern Lords, the young Sun Quan (Chen Chang) and military expert Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Liu Bei uses his chief adviser Kongming (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to negotiate with Lords. Even with this new alliance, Cao Cao still outnumbers the 3 Kingdoms with a force of 800,000 troops. Zhou Yu and Kongming sets out the win the coming battle with strategy, expert military tactics, trickery, the weather and spies. Here the two forces set out for the coming battle.
John Woo is an action director and the martial arts and the battles are well handle, if OTT (but that's what John Woo does). He has flair and the fights are bloody. He has fun with the CGI, from the battles to following arrows and doves when they are in flight. He gets to combine both Asian and Hollywood style of film-making. The music as well combine both Asian and Western styles. The film itself feels like the Chinese Lord of the Rings.
Tony Leung is the strongest link in the film, he is an expert martial artist and a good actor, being in House of Flying Daggers, the Infernal Affiars Trilogy and Lust Caution just to name a few. He offers another good performances. Other actors also offer good performances and they was no one who dragged the film down.
In China and Hong Kong Red Cliff was split into two films and already out on DVD in Hong Kong. The Western version compares the films, and its also the dumbed down version. The English was just weird in context with the rest of film. The film also does change in tone from it beginning. Lets hope that the DVD release in the West will be of both films or an extended edition.
7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-

Dull Fight Scenes & Dialogue, None of the Irony and "Romance" of ROTK, 11 August 2008
Author: Aegharis from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
First off, I am a huge fan of ROTK, I've read the complete unabridged novel. I was very excited for this movie, I've always thought ROTK needed a big screen adaptation. Comparing the novel with the movie though, the movie lacked the excitement, tension, irony, and romance that the novel had.
After the first fight scene which contained one of the most memorable scenes from the novel and the movie, the fight scenes and their choreography got way too repetitive, which, coupled with the 30 minute long battle scenes, I had myself thinking, ah, this isn't as good as I thought, when will they be done with all this repetitive glaive (chinese spear) stabbing crap?
When the fight scenes were finally done, the political intrigue wasn't as enticing as I had hoped either. I was really hoping for Zhuge Liang to be built up as the superhuman genius from the novel, I was really looking forward to the movie walking the viewer through his brilliant thinking and tactics like the novel did. The novel did such a wonderful job of showing how clever Zhuge Liang was. He was always one step ahead of his enemies, and his friends, he always knew what they were thinking in the novel, and when you thought he lost his mind and made the worst move possible, later on you'd realize, he really made an ingenious move and took everything into account with his battle strategies and tactics. The movie didn't show as much of his brilliant planning as I had hoped. To build up tension and excitement for the fight scenes and to make them truly exciting and to make the viewer feel the flow of a battle, I think showing Zhuge Liang's ingenious planning is absolutely necessary, the movie lacked this.
What they did show was a bunch of love scenes with Zhou Yu and his wife and Cao Cao and his mistress. I mean c'mon, a love scene gets like one paragraph in the novel, and Zhuge Liang's meticulous planning gets like 50 chapters, but in the movie we get more screen time of characters feeling each other up than seeing Zhuge Liang larger than life exploits.
You also get a lot of screen time for Sun Shang Xiang, they've made her a critical part of the movie and she actually participates in the battles, I thought this seemed a little silly and it took away from the urgency of the battles, at least when compared to the novel. I thought they could have done such a better job with the battle scenes, actually all of the scenes.
I guess we'll have to wait for another adaptation for ROTK to get the treatment it deserves.
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