Red Cliff

Starring Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro. Directed by John Woo. M.

In his historical medieval battle epic, Red Cliff, Chinese director John Woo harnesses digital imagery with a story that's better than expected and full of cunning twists to make a visually spectacular and entertaining blockbuster.

In his historical medieval battle epic, Red Cliff, Chinese director John Woo harnesses digital imagery with a story that's better than expected and full of cunning twists to make a visually spectacular and entertaining blockbuster.

Its only notable defect is parts of it seem unduly episodic or presented with little development – a result of the movie having been edited from its original 280 minutes (in two parts) to 148 minutes for Western audiences.

Red Cliff is chocker with huge battle scenes entailing massive armies and naval fleets and involving strategies and tactics out of military bible The Art of War. Tens of thousands of arrows fly and catapults launch fireballs against ingenious battle formations that assault seemingly impenetrable fortifications. You haven't seen anything like this since Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But Woo knows that battle scenes – using panoramic wide-angle shots showing countless soldiers or ships, thanks to computer graphics, or tighter, sharply edited close-ups of individuals in balletic combat with swords and lances – can become a blur without a story and characters to intrigue and sustain interest.

His fragmented story is surprisingly straightforward: it's 208 AD, near the end of China's Han dynasty. Despite years of civil war in the north, the emperor's prime minister and military general Cao-Cao (Zhang Fengyi) wants to conquer the southern kingdoms of warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan in a pre-emptive strike.

Liu Bei's military strategist, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), realises that an alliance with Sun Quan is the only chance to repel Cao-Cao's mighty forces, leading him to unite with Sun Quan's viceroy, Zhou Yu (Tony Leung).

Cao-Cao not only wants to eliminate any potential threat from the south and even challenge the emperor for ultimate power, he covets Zhou Yu's beautiful wife (Chiling Lin). If he is going to war for a woman, his foes see war as a way of preventing future wars.

Woo's epic is notable for women – one a spy, the other skilled in the art of tea – being smart, brave and playing critical roles in the war's outcome, which also depends more on wily deception and predicting the weather than how much might each side has.

Woo also salvages enough of the film's love story, including a modest sex scene, from the full-length movie to keep disbelief suspended in the film's concluding scenes.

Woo fans will note the director incorporates various signature trademarks, such as a dove in a terrific aerial tracking shot and a climactic Mexican standoff.

Red Cliff is also a reminder that there is no victor in war and to avoid, if at all possible, being a messenger delivering bad news to an enemy.

- © Fairfax NZ News