Post by pim on Jan 27, 2020 11:23:43 GMT 10
It was shown over two nights on the World Movies channel as part of SBS’s recognition of Lunar New Year. We watched it as part of our avoidance strategies so as not to have to have anything beamed or streamed onto our TV screen that had anything to do with Invasion Day. I’d seen the shorter version maybe about 10 years ago when it was released in Australia but SBS on demand has the long version. When I say “long version I’m talking about a two part movie that’s about four and a half hours in length when you put them both together. The abridged version which the Chinese truncated for Western audiences with their short attention spans is half as long. I remember when David Stratton reviewed it. He praised the movie but said it was a pity the Chinese had cut out the culture specific stuff with its tea ceremonies, its courtly rituals and court politics and left in the biffo with its massed battle scenes. He said that sitting through the unabridged version (which had been a smash hit in China) repaid the effort and I agree with him.
Briefly the narrative is set in the third century A.D. and is about a northern bad guy wanting to conquer the southern good guys and the centrepiece is a massive naval battle on the river Yangtze which the good guys win and the top good guy gets his girl (back!). The overall historical setting is - very loosely - the end of the Han Dynasty and the beginning of what they call the Three Kingdoms period. Alas my knowledge of Chinese history is almost non-existent so I can’t comment on the movie’s historical accuracy. The bad guy in the movie is the imperial prime minister and the good guys are a coalition of southern warlords so go figure.
I enjoyed it. I think it’s up there with Shaolin as a Chinese historical epic. It’s not easy to find on SBS on demand. You have to go to the search function and key in “Red Cliff”. It’s there. You’ll find it.
Briefly the narrative is set in the third century A.D. and is about a northern bad guy wanting to conquer the southern good guys and the centrepiece is a massive naval battle on the river Yangtze which the good guys win and the top good guy gets his girl (back!). The overall historical setting is - very loosely - the end of the Han Dynasty and the beginning of what they call the Three Kingdoms period. Alas my knowledge of Chinese history is almost non-existent so I can’t comment on the movie’s historical accuracy. The bad guy in the movie is the imperial prime minister and the good guys are a coalition of southern warlords so go figure.
I enjoyed it. I think it’s up there with Shaolin as a Chinese historical epic. It’s not easy to find on SBS on demand. You have to go to the search function and key in “Red Cliff”. It’s there. You’ll find it.
