a5c7b9f00b The first chapter of a two-part story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.). In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster 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. During the battle, two thousand ships were burned, and the course of Chinese history was changed forever. How come a Movie which entitled 'History based' always turns up 'History inaccurate'? To name the worst is Braveheart(Mel Gibson's) and the recent Three Kingdoms(Andy Lau's). Well I don't know if it's some kind of tolerance the scriptwriters do to make the movie more enjoyable and more dramatize, but again when you know exactly how the way it was in History compare to what you saw in the movie...I guess it's somewhat intelligence insulting.<br/><br/>The case in Red Cliff(part 1)is also very much similar, although it's not so much history twisted like case in Andy Lau's The Three Kingdoms and still follow the main history stream, but still it's very annoying to see how Zhou Yu in the movie portrayed into somehow a heroic character rather than exploring his darker side. <br/><br/>Zhuge Liang as the main key tactician of the battle was in my opinion be given a very small contribution in the movie while the tiger Generals Guan, Zhang and Zhou were given so much showdown chances. I mean when first I heard about Red Cliff, what I expect is more of a battle of wits between Wu and Wei and the internal conflict between the alliance itself, but instead there are tons of battlefield action going over and over again that in the end it drags us to a state of bore. But I guess I should have known better with Woo at the helm.<br/><br/>Considering the sum of money invested, guess we can't really blame it on anybody, should it stick to the actual history, it would be a movie for just a certain group of audience but when you put some battle ground action with all those martial art's styling moves and deadly blows, jeez you got the audience from all hype coming over. In the end it's all business. But still this is a very enjoyable movie, and after watching it anyone will at least agree on the promotion claimed in the trailer as the non-Hollywood movie with biggest budget ever. Have just seen the UK release of this film in a cinema. The spectacular battles are quite overwhelming viewing, and thereby hangs one of the slight problems with this film. At the beginning especially the viewer is made to feel right inside the battle formations - and for too long, seemingly going on forever and that's about it. At key battle points the director should have "pulled back" to present the viewer with more of an overview. And, for far too long, the director failed to involve or engage the viewer with any of the main characters in a story which, at the beginning at least, takes time to unravel all its complexities. And, as a western viewer of this film, it was quite difficult to keep up with the facial characteristics of (to us) a range of "unknown" Chinese actors. It was only when the focus of the film moved to the site of the Red Cliffs that you could begin to feel far more engaged in the film and to care far more about what was going on. We shall probably experience the same with this film as we did with "Curse of the Golden Flower", and enjoy it far more at home on DVD because you can then focus more intently on the "story" rather than, as in the cinema, being completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume and speed of the spectacle. I also found it quite "funny" seemingly every time a charge was to be undertaken in a battle, to hear snippets of Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" on the soundtrack. I also have to say that I was completely wowed out by Chiling Lin who played Xiao Quiao, the wife of Zhou Yu. Could really have spent the whole of the film gazing at her exquisite face! A prelude that provides the beams and columns for the narrative framework, but with a few decisive and spot-on action spectacles, it sufficiently kindles expectations for the climactic clash in Part 2. The original Hong Kong Version of the first movie runs approx. 145 minutes, the complete International Version 143 minutes. One can do the math. Approx. 50 percent of each movie were cut out.