RED CLIFF

DIRECTOR: John Woo
CAST: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Fengyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Jun Hu, Yong You

A ruthless prime minister subjugating warlords for supremacy, during the time of the Han dynasty, provides plenty of ground for action. And action there is aplenty in this John Woo-directed Cantonese film. There are great battle scenes, of course, as expected of the director, on the ground and in water, involving a CGI-inflated count of soldiers and ships, but there are also gritty hand-to-hand combats, bloody encounters (at least one of which involves a baby), and some useful tips about battle formations and how nature plays a substantial role in determining the course of war.

Woo sets up these scenes magnificently, capturing battles in both their entirety and in the small things intrinsic to them. However, what lets it all down is the laughable dubbing. We have actors in 3rd century Chinese regalia mouthing dialogue in 21st century Hollywoodese. The more important problem though is that the film never gets you interested, jumping from one character to another without establishing the context of any. The actors themselves make no effort beyond what’s required of them, and that’s largely to plot the war, and fight ruggedly through it.

The film also never gets close to solving what remains, for me, an eternal mystery — amid the mess of the battlefield, how the crucial characters find amazing vantage points from where they keep a watch on all that’s happening, variously nodding, grimacing or mourning. Red Cliff is no exception.