Who Plays Who?

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 Tong Jiang Jia Song Dawei Tong Qingxiang Wang

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Zhou Yu Zhuge Liang Cao Cao Sun Quan Sun Shangxiang Zhao Yun Xiao Qiao Gan Xing Liu Bei Guan Yu Lu Su Li Tong Li Ji Sun Shucai Kong Rong

The Inside Story Getting the script right for this movie was a monumental task. The difficulties were threefold. First, the story actually took place in 208 AD, but it did not become popular until the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", written by Luo Guanzhong, was published, in the thirteenth century. In the novel, many facts were distorted for dramatic effect. For instance, the character of Zhuge Liang, the military advisor of the Zu Kingdom, was lionized to mythical proportions. He was described as a mature gentleman with magical powers, which he used to alter the weather and "borrow the eastern wind", enabling the Allies to win the Battle of "Red Cliff". But in reality, he was only twenty seven years old when the battle was fought. He was a farmer and scholar who had just been recruited by his Lord, Liu Bei, as a strategist. He merely used his knowledge of the nature and astrology to predict changes in the weather. The real hero of this battle, Viceroy Zhou Yu of the Wu Kingdom, was described in the novel as a narrow-minded person who tried to kill Zhuge Liang and was so jealous of Zhuge’s talents that he eventually died. Director John Woo wanted to stick close to history, and he based most of the script on the historical book "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", as well as other historical studies; but at the same time, he also extracted certain entertaining elements from the novel, so as not to alienate fans of the novel. For instance, the brilliant scene of Zhuge Liang’s "borrowing of the enemy’s arrows with the straw boats" was taken from the novel. It was a delicate balance indeed. Second, this film is intended not just for the Asian audience, but for an international one. The novel of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is widely read, even nowadays, not only in Chinese speaking territories such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, but also in other Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. It has spawned numerous comic books and mangas in these territories, and has also prompted the Japanese game publisher Koei to publish more than a dozen very successful (both strategy and action) videogames with the title "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". When one is making a movie about the Three Kingdoms, one has to include generals like Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei and especially Guan Yu, who is now worshipped as a god in many Asian countries. But when it came to western audiences, there seem to be too many characters with names that sound very similar. One US studio executive once suggested combining several generals on the Allies’ side into one person. That would be like combining Roosevelt, Churchill and de Galle into one person when making a movie about WWII. Owing to the large number of characters, as well as the numerous famous incidents that led to the Battle of "Red Cliff", the script came in very long. It is hard to imagine a western audience sitting through a four hour subtitled Chinese movie. The solution was to split the movie into two parts for the Asian market and release it as one trimmed down John Woo action film for international audience. Third, this story is so well known in Asia that every person who is familiar with the story has his or her own take on it. The same goes with writers. Perhaps more with writers than anyone else. From July 2004 to early 2007, Woo worked with several top Chinese writers, but none of them could produce a script to his satisfaction. Eventually Woo wrote it himself, first with Khan Chan to map out a structure, then with Kuo Cheng to flesh out the characters and the individual scenes. Kuo Cheng stayed with the film during its entire shoot. He was on hand to deal with minor dialogue changes during the production. The Battle of "Red Cliff" actually took place in Crow Forest, where Cao Cao’s army and navy were stationed. Crow Forest was at the northern bank of the Yangtze River, diagonally across the river from "Red Cliff", where the Allies’s army was stationed. The precise location of the "Red Cliff" battlefield has been the subject of both popular and academic debates, but has never been conclusively established. he course and length of the Yangtze River has changed drastically since 208AD, and the names of the key locations have also changed throughout the years. In 1998, the city of Puqi in Hubei Province was renamed Chibi City (Red Cliff City), in a direct attempt to tie the location to the historical battlefield. Assuming that was the real location of the Battle of "Red Cliff", it was impossible to shoot the movie there, due to the amount of traffic on the river. Also the geography was vastly different than the one that Woo had imagined for his movie. From the summer of 2004 onwards, the production has scouted locations in fourteen provinces, with director Woo and producer Chang personally scouting in five: Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hebei and Yunan. Finally Woo settled on Yi Xian in Hebei Province, which is about three hours by car from Beijing. Later, when Woo ("Broken Arrow" & "Face/Off") was on a tourist speedboat cruising the Angezhuang Resevoir at Yi Xian, he saw a piece of land by the water which he thought might be suitable for building Crow Forest, the site for Cao Cao’s camp. But there were three issues. There was nothing remotely resembling "Red Cliff" diagonally across; the land was not accessible by any vehicles; and Woo thought it was too flat even though the location was perfect. A road was built, connecting the main highway to the piece of land. Woo found the location of "Red Cliff" at a different site, which had to be connected to the Crow Forest site by Visual Effects. Woo decided to build on the site a mount the size of two football stadiums and fourty feet feet high, and have a fortress with a watch tower erected on top of the mount. To do this special permits had to be obtained and soil from a hill miles away was laid and pressed foot by foot onto the reservoir site. The job took several months in the summer of 2006 to complete. When it came to selecting a production designer and costume designer, the choice was easy. Nobody was more qualified than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" Oscar ® winning designer Tim Yip ("Wo hu cang long"). Not only is Tim a visual master, he also had experience dealing with the operation of a huge art department, which at one time during our production consisted of more than a thousand designers, carpenters, construction workers, seamstress, prop guys, and even shipbuilders. After discussing the script with John Woo, Tim first set upon designing the vision of several major set pieces, of which the story wraps itself around. Elaborate artistic impressions of those scenes were then created. Meanwhile 2007 Asian Film Award winner Tim ("Ye yan") and his team did an enormous amount of research, not only on architecture and costumes, but also on ships, weaponry and other props specific to the film’s setting. Woo was adamant they remained as faithful as possible to historical details. "The most difficult thing about working on "Red Cliff" was to create a unified aesthetic feel for the film. There are very few artifacts left behind from the Warring States period, and all the images that we have are derived from the novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The novel is full of fantastic stories that make it very memorable for readers" says Tim. "To shoot them on such a large scale is unprecedented." As the story of The Three Kingdoms has long since been embraced by Asian audiences (based on the famous novel or mangas they’ve read, videogames they’ve played, or previous movies or television series they’ve seen) each person already has his or her own idea of how the characters should be portrayed. This made casting for the movie quite challenging. But since director John Woo wanted to remain faithful to history, he was determined to cast actors who resembled the characters descriptions in the history books. The character Zhuge Liang, for instance, was only twenty seven years old in 208AD when he fought in the famous battle of "Red Cliff". He was a six foot tall handsome man who had just been recruited by his lord Liu Bei as a military advisor. For this role, Takeshi Kaneshiro brought with him such charm, humor, wit and wisdom that the part seemed tailor made for him. It is quite a coincidence that Kaneshiro happened to have always adored Zhuge Liang since he was very young. The Wu Kingdom’s Viceroy Zhou Yu, on the other hand, was a classic romantic hero, as recorded not only in history, but also as he was described in a famous poem by the Song Dynasty poet Su Dongbo. He was torn between his loyalty to his country, and the deep love he had for his peace-loving wife Xiao Qiao. Audiences will be delightfully surprised to see Asian superstar Tony Leung ("Infernal Affairs" & "In the Mood for Love") portray this tormented hero, as they have never seen him play a period general, displaying his gallantry in full armor on horseback. "Red Cliff" marks the third collaboration between Leung and director John Woo. Leung had previously played an adventurer, bound by honor in the tumultuous Sixties in "Bullet In The Head", and a sensitive but tormented undercover cop in "Hard-Boiled". These two films are considered Woo’s best of his Hong Kong period. Very little was written about Zhou Yu’s wife, Xiao Qiao, except that she was supposed to be a beauty that sank two thousand ships. Asian top model Chiling Lin makes her acting debut with this role, and brought with her such grace and innate strength that audiences will likely forget that she is in fact a vivacious and popular contemporary beauty. One of the more challenging roles of the film to cast was the character Cao Cao. Contrary to traditional notions of being the archetypical villain, Cao Cao is actually anything but. He was certainly ambitious and perhaps aspired to become emperor himself. But his goal was to unite China, which at that time was divided into many warring states. He was also a scholar and a gifted poet and painter. Classically trained Zhang Fengyi is well-known for his 'good guy' roles in 1993's "Farewell My Concubine" and 1998's "The Emperor and the Assassin". He gives so much depth to this dark and complicated character that it will come as no surprise if he is showered with accolades for his enthralling performance. After nearly three years of planning and a year of pre-production, principal photography on "Red Cliff" commenced on April 14th 2007 on CCTV’s lot in Zhuo Zhou, Hebei Province, which is about an hour’s drive from Beijing. "My goal is for this film to rise above cultural and historical barriers, so that the Western audience feels as if they are watching an Asian Troy, while the Eastern audience can discover new perspectives on a familiar story. I also wanted to prove that here in China, we are capable of creating an epic film of the same caliber of a Hollywood production," Woo says. "For me, the most attractive aspects of Romance of the Three Kingdoms are not the supernatural characters idealized by the novel, but true Heroism that the characters show." The Verdict "If you are a lover of films such as "Farewell My Concubine", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hero", "Curse of the Golden Flower", "Fearless", "House of Flying Daggers" and "Memoirs of a Geisha", then your cup of chinese green tea is about to runneth over. John Woo's epic tale of "Red Cliff" is a sumptous, spectacular production that will, no doubt, receive a multitude of accolades from cinemagoers. Fascinating characters, huge battle scenes, spectacular scenery, costuming and, believe it or not, the intrigue of strategic planning all combine to make this film an outstanding experience. Woo's descision to make two versions, one a full length feature film for Asian markets and one for Westerners was a stroke of genius. Most westeners (who don't have the patience of Confucius) will agree, two and a half hours is enough time to spend in a theatre, while those critics who bemoan they have been cheated can hire or buy the DVD if and when a full length version is released. Easy to read subtitles add to the joyous experience that is "Red Cliff". A grand tale on a huge scale! Highly recommended. 4 1/2 STARS." Synopsis

From acclaimed director John Woo comes a dazzling, visionary epic based on the legendary Battle of Red Cliff, in which a force of fifty thousand defeated an army of nearly one million. In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minister Cao Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale, led by the Prime Minister himself. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance. Numerous battles of strength and wit ensued, both on land and on water, eventually culminating in the battle of Red Cliff. With the food supply running short, and the army vastly out numbered, the two allies seemed doomed. A fierce battle ensued. It would changed the course of Chinese history forever.

What Do The Critics Say

"The set-piece clashes on land and water are immense but teem with fine detail, not least a stupendous sequence where Cao Cao’s forces are routed by his opponents’ elaborate “tortoise” manoeuvre. Amidst the panoramic action Woo develops a strong cast of characters, particularly the shrewd and scholarly Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and philosophical military commander Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Woo has created a resounding epic, blending a distinctly Chinese ethos with a Hollywood sense of scale." Adam Sweeting UNCUT MAGAZINE UK "The performances are excellent. Takeshi Kaneshiro is extremely compelling as the seemingly unflappable Zhuge and he has intriguing chemistry with Tony Leung, for which the word bromance wouldn't be entirely out of place. Thrilling, beautifully shot and superbly acted, this is a return to form for director John Woo. Highly Recommended." Matthew Turner VIEW LONDON "When I saw that this Chinese war epic was going to be nearly two and a half hours long, I nearly choked on my spring roll. But in the end it wasn't as bum-numbing as I feared it might be. With battle scenes to rival those of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, this is a beautiful piece of cinematography." SUNONLINE "Woo aimed for 'an Asian Troy', but any similarities to Wolfgang Petersen’s schlockbuster are purely coincidental: this is a sweeping, stirring breath-snatcher that finds the director on his finest form since Face/Off. Even half-cut, it’s a whole lot of epic." Matthew Leyland TOTAL FILM "There are two things that you can almost always count on in a John Woo film: doves and an indiscriminate abuse of slow-motion. Red Cliff, shot in mainland China, features the director's most ambitious dove sequence and enough slow-motion to make every battle scene seem like a Bolshoi Ballet production: covered in blood, that is. Woo has a knack for the spectacular, and Red Cliff is certainly something to behold." Hernán Alcerreca FILMINK

"The result is literally breathtaking, as well as visually staggering and deeply satisfying. And beneath all that, it's a terrific story about an underdog standing up for principles against all odds.John Woo applies his whizzing, sweeping visual style to Chinese history, making this film one of the most hugely entertaining battle epics in recent memory. Utterly riveting, we barely feel two and a half hours pass. Must see!" Rich Cline SHADOWS ON THE WALL "The numerous battle scenes, culminating in the famous Battle of Red Cliff, prove Woo is an action director par excellence." Derek Malcolm THIS IS LONDON "A monster 2½ hour storm of skirmishes, ambushes, and one of the biggest and most visually astonishing battle scenes ever staged. I don't want to undersell the sheer awesomeness of the battle scenes-fans of historical Far Eastern flicks will get a serious Wing Chun roundhouse kick out of this. If it's an eyeball-searing historical epic you're after, then Woo's your daddy." Robbie Collin NEWS OF THE WORLD "Balances character, grit, spectacle and visceral action in a meaty, dramatically satisfying pie." Derek Elley VARIETY "I know the Chinese invented gunpowder, but did they really play football as early as AD 208? The battle choreography is superb, and Woo's Peckinpah-style slo-mo violence ensures that every lopping and skewering gets our full attention." Anthony Quinn INDEPENDENT "Dark-toned color processing doesn't glamorize the period and adds gravitas to many of the youthful actors. Japanese composer Taro Iwashiro's multi-faceted score: brazzy, playful, lyrical by turns, adds real dramatic clout throughout. Balances character, grit, spectacle and visceral action in a meaty, dramatically satisfying pie that delivers on the hype and will surprise many who felt the Hong Kong helmer progressively lost his mojo during his long years stateside." Derek Elley VARIETY

The Production Team

Director Producers Chief Producer Original Music Director of Photography Film Editors Casting Production Designer Art Direction Costume Designer

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John Woo Terence Chang & John Woo Tao Jiang & John Woo Tarô Iwashiro Lu Yue & Zhang Li Robert A Ferretti/Angie Lam/Yang Hong Yu Jie Cheng Tim Yip Eddy Wong Tim Yip

Run Time 149 minutes Rated MA15+[AUST] ©2009 - Icon Distribution - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2009 All Rights Reserved The Movie Pages - Protected by Australian & International Copyright. Trademark laws applied.