John Woo’s epic movie ‘Red Cliff’

Red Cliff

Red Cliff is a Chinese epic film based on the Battle of Red Cliffs and events during the end of the Han Dynasty and immediately prior to the period of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China.

The film was directed by John Woo, and stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Hu Jun, Lin Chi-ling and Zhao Wei.

The western combined release trims the length of the movie from 280 minutes to 148 minutes, notable cuts include the entire defection storyline, the background and motivations behind Zhuge Liang’s plan to steal 100,000 arrows including the threat to his life, and the early parts of Sun Shangxiang’s infiltration.

Also trimmed are the lengths of scenes predominantly found in part 1. However, the western combined release also adds new material. For example when a character’s earlier introduction was cut then the later scene within which that character first appears in the western release features extended dialogue to introduce them.

The 15 minute tiger hunt plot line of the Asian release is cut but the council chamber scene that comes immediately after it features 2 minutes of additional argument between characters providing the same character and plot advancement but in a more compact form.

Likewise an opening narration in English is provided to set the historical context whereas in the Asian release a similar yet briefer description of the context of the political situation appears in scrolling form 10 minutes into the film.