Red Cliff is, without question, a return to form for director John Woo. This is the film we’ve been desperate to see from him for years now. But be warned – there are two different versions of it on the market. And I’ve screened the lesser of the two on Blu-ray.
Boy, does our ADD western culture really like to reshape things in its own image. Not satisfied that audiences would accept and screen both parts of Woo’s 2-film epic, importers have smashed both films together and whittled its running time down to just over half of its original combined 282 minute length. In order to bridge the gaping holes left in the film, an English language voice-over ominously steams through plot and character details, trampling over previously poetic moments and hurrying us toward the films signature battle scenes. It’s exhausting! We can feel the vestiges of what once was, struggling to surface. We’re given hints of the wonderful, smaller moments in the film, before being slammed between scenes of strategy and battle.
Amazingly, the film still plays quite well in its truncated version. It’s remains a compelling, traditional tale of feudal China, outlining the lives of a handful of people who juggle love, war and the delicate machinations of the Imperial political system. Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro shine as military strategists for their respective leaders and their relatively diminutive forces, who come together to challenge the forces of the Emperor’s spiteful Prime Minister. It’s a fascinating story with a greater depth that can all but be sensed in this tragically brief cut of the film.
While this “Theatrical Edition” of Red Cliff might come up short in its narrative, no expense has been spared in making certain that the transfer and encode of the Blu-ray are nearly perfect! Detail is simply stunning here. I paused the film on several occasions just to admire the costumes, production design and beautiful photography. In fact, detail is so good, it’s also possible to see the flaws in the makeup at times – the netting used to attach fake-hair sticks out like a sore thumb in 1080p! Colours are sumptuous and accurate and blacks are solid. Original Mandarin audio is presented in a wonderful 5.1 DTS HD track but also includes English and French 5.1 DTS HD, for those who don’t like subs.
It’s shocking to me, that this disc is able to hold a wonderfully encoded two-and-a-half hour film as well as over three hours of extras! The Red Cliff Blu-ray doesn’t come up short in the special features department, let me tell you. ‘The Making of Red Cliff: The Long Road’ is a feature film in itself, running the length of the main feature. Encoded in SD, it might look a bit fuzzy compared to the HD presentation of the film but it’s truly a wealth of information to behold. Rounding out the disc is a 27-minute conversation with John Woo, a 4-minute HD Net preview of the film, storyboards and trailers.
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