Review of film: “RED CLIFF” (“Chi Bi”) + Q&A with Director JOHN WOO [CIFF Report # 14 ]

2009, 11-17:

Review of film:  “RED CLIFF”  (“Chi Bi”)  + Q&A with Director JOHN WOO  [CIFF Report # 14 ]

REPORT:  This constitutes my original Report # 14 on the 45th Chicago Int'l Film Festival --  with a review of the movie “RED CLIFF” that was a “Gala Presentation” shown at the Fest on October 9th (& 10^th, 2009);  it’s being reported now because the film is about to OPEN nationally in the U.S. as of 11-20-09:

…  Highly-regarded action director JOHN WOO was given the “RED CARPET” treatment for his arrival at the Festival on 10-09…

…  Later, in the theater upstairs, he was introduced by a representative from HONG KONG, since the nite’s film was a joint production by China, Hong Kong, the U.S., Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.  She spoke of how Hong Kong films have won over 300 international awards in recent years (including “CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON”), & this year marks the 100th Anniversary of the 1st film shot there…

…  She then introduced JOHN WOO, who spoke of how he felt “very NERVOUS” to be speaking there.  After numerous photos were shot (including some by me, included herewith), he said, “THANK YOU for having me here!”…

…  As an introduction, Mr. Woo spoke of how his film [which we were to see in its 148-minute rather than the 2-part 4+-hour version] was based on an epic Chinese battle from around 2000 years ago [between the Han dynasty & start of the Three Kingdoms period]. ..

…   He feels that the film shows that the weak can unite to defeat the strong, using certain effective tactics.  He remarked that it’s a story he wanted to make “for over 20 YEARS”, he received huge support from the government of China (where it was filmed), & he very much enjoyed shooting it there…

…  After Mr. Woo said he’d be back later for a Q&A AFTER the film, we settled back to welcome his creation…  

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Review of film:  “RED CLIFF”  (“Chi Bi”)  + Q&A with Director JOHN WOO

Director:

John Woo.

Writers:

Guanzhong Luo  (novel: "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"— one of China’s 4 great classical novels).

John Woo (screenplay, with:)

Khan Chan

Cheng Kuo

Heyu Sheng.

Starring:

Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Takeshi Kaneshiro

Fengyi Zhang

Chen Chang

Wei Zhao

Jun Hu

Chiling Lin

Shido Nakamura

Yong You

Ba Sen Zha Bu

Yong Hou.

MPAA Rating:

Rated R for sequences of epic warfare.

Quotes:

MY Rating: 

9 of 10 stars (based on an advance screening of the U.S. version of 148 minutes; the 280-minute Asian version was NOT seen!).

EPIC battles in a Place & Time FAR AWAY

The film revels in the Court intrigues of competing political groups, and thus the story tends to be quite detailed and “involved”.  I’m going to try to “simplify” it as much as feasible:

…  The northern Han emperor is inclined to vacillate a lot in governmental matters, & tends to be controlled by his brilliant-but-often-cruel Prime Minister / Chancellor Cao Cao (FENGYI ZHANG) who leads the army...

…  Cao Cao wants to do away with southern warlords Liu Bei (YONG YOU) & Sun Quan (CHEN CHANG), & the reluctant emperor finally allows him to proceed with his attacks.  During the battles, Liu’s brothers Zhang Fei & Guan Yu hold off Cao Cao to give southern civilians a chance to escape…

…  Liu’s chief advisor, Zhuge Liang (TAKESHI KANESHIRO), works to form an alliance with Sun Quan to deal with Cao Cao’s invasion.  Sun Quan has a brilliant tactician, Grand Viceroy Zhou Yu (TONY LEUNG CHIU WAI), and a clever militarily-adept sister Sun Shangxiang (WEI ZHAO)…

…  While they are making plans for the Liu Bei & Sun Quan groups to work together, Cao Cao gathers more allies for HIS cause in the form of naval commanders Cai Mao and Zhang Yun…

…  Cao Cao’s army & navy work to attack the much smaller forces of the southern allies at the Red Cliffs area (hence the movie’s name).  This sets the scenes for numerous fabulous BATTLE sequences: 

…  You see loads of horses, swords, spears, arrows, shields, & ships, with thousands of soldiers & sailors, clever tactics (including infiltration SPYING work by Sun Shangxiang, who uses a pigeon to communicate with the southern group), and grand planning for future combat…

…  It’s the battle choreography & intrigue (including special climatic knowledge & erotic scheming plus an early use of germ warfare) that form the basis of the story— supplemented by great costumes, sets, action & soundtrack…

…  The action is at times alternatingly mind-boggling, inventive and beautiful.  Yes, some of it may at times be hard to “believe”--  but, it’s so energetically WELL-DONE overall (with impressive acting & production), it’s a joy to indulge in, which is why I’ve rated it as I have…

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                                     Q&A with Director JOHN WOO

AFTER the film (which got hearty applause from the audience), JOHN WOO returned for the Q&A:

…  An audience member asked him about the MUSIC used.  He said, he loves the sounds of Japanese drums for the “great energy & tension & rhythm” they provide, & thus he chose to use a Japanese composer who’d utilize those instruments for the soundtrack…

…  He was asked about his use of “OMENS”…  Mr. Woo said, there’s not much of a “love story” overall, but he decided to concentrate on another element:  “FRIENDSHIPS are always a theme of my movies—”, & thus he utilized that a lot in this production…  He said he DIDN’T want to follow the main book story too closely, as a lot was FICTION…

…  When asked whether he preferred directing SWORDFIGHTS (as in this film) or his typical gunfights [such as often utilized in his U.S. films], he said he tended to prefer the [more involved] swordfights--  tho each held interest for him… 

…  He said, he was tempted to not use his characteristic BIRD-flight shots again--  but, he felt his “friends” would “MISS” it if he didn’t include it, & added that the sweeping shots involving such things in “RED CLIFF” was probably one of the most EXPENSIVE shots in film history…

…  Mr. Woo was asked, how HISTORICALLY ACCURATE is the story he showed in this film?  He said, he was “NOT making a TV series for the HISTORY Channel—”, & thus he added & changed some things for “CREATIVE purposes”…

…  He openly admitted that, he DIDN’T always follow ancient history or the book…  He indicated that he preferred making an INTERESTING and enjoyable movie, rather than being constrained by sticking to absolute historical facts…

   

…  Mr. Woo commented on how the worldwide ECONOMIC collapse started growing as the film was being worked on, & he was very AFFECTED by that:  he saw that, some young people “didn’t know what to do” with the unexpected situation, & some were even “giving up [on] their LIVES”…

…  He remarked how he felt that, “They need somebody to CARE about them—”, & that feeling caused him to purposely CHANGE some of the subject matter of the film, to purposely make it more of an “ENCOURAGING movie” rather than a “dull historical film”…

…  He purposely worked to have the film show how a small army can defeat a larger force thru the use of TEAMWORK & INTELLIGENCE--  to be “ENCOURAGING” by showing that “ANYBODY can win” if the people “just come TOGETHER” in their efforts… 

…  That’s one reason he purposely utilized people from Japan & China working with each other, & he felt especially good when seeing how some people CRIED in those nations when watching the final product, & at the way some even commented on how they themselves wished that THEY could have FRIENDS like those shown in the movie!…

…  As to the overall work in “RED CLIFF”, he had some “strong personalities”, people who were “independent”, & people who were “brave”…  When asked about the labor on the film, he said, he used “stuntmen from all over”, normally used at least 700 to 1500 soldiers as “extras” every day, + like 2000 people working on set-building and the like… 

…  He had 12 CAMERA crews, & it took like 5 YEARS to handle the project:  around 2 years working on the script, 1.5 years of general planning & storyboard work, 8 months of shooting, + editing time…  He commented that, everything went “way OVER budget!” [making it the most expensive Asian-financed film]…

…  As to his CASTING choices, he said, a certain man [CHOW YUN FAT] planned for a role as a general didn’t work out [due to contract problems], & thus TONY LEUNG --  who’d at first declined work on the project because of needing to rest from a previous film – agreed to help out by joining the cast…

…  He added that, a lot of the people were chosen for the fact that they had a lot of charm & charisma.  As to a woman in the cast, he said she (seemingly referring to WEI ZHAO) was a “very famous” actress, but this was her FIRST feature film, & she showed herself to be a “very INTELLIGENT girl”, both “beautiful & brave”…  A Festival person THANKED him for his Q&A work, & he indicated he was happy to be there…

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