Synopsis
In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster 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. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance.
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Cast
- Tony Leung Chiu-waiZhou Yu
- Takeshi KaneshiroZhuge Liang
- Zhang FengyiCao Cao
- Chang ChenSun Quan
- Zhao WeiSun Shangxiang
- Hu JunZhao Yun
- Shido NakamuraGan Xing
- Chi-Ling LinXiao Qiao
- You YongzhiLiu Bei
- Hou YongLu Su
Recommendations
- 83
Entertainment Weekly
The spectacular battle scenes are the engorged heart of the delirious adventure. But Woo also gets maximum romantic value from Tony Leung as a war hero married to Chiling Lin as the tea-pouring beauty. - 80
Empire
Camp, over-the-top and entirely unbelievable: in short, the best thing John Woo has made in years. - 80
Variety
Balances character, grit, spectacle and visceral action in a meaty, dramatically satisfying pie that delivers on the hype and will surprise many who felt the Hong Kong helmer progressively lost his mojo during his long years stateside. - 80
Village Voice
Red Cliff exudes a physical grandiosity that few movies of the past 20 years have attempted--no matter that Woo, even at his best, is still more at ease with down-and-dirty action than epic pageantry. - 80
Salon
It's a movie on the Hollywood scale that has so much of the Asian spirit. It has drawn the Asian audience back to the movie theater. - 75
New York Post
A scrumptious war movie. - 70
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Any war picture in which the heroine stalls the villain with a quiet, painstaking tea ceremony until the wind shifts direction and the good guys can firebomb the bad guys into oblivion is too ineffably Zen not to love. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
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.
