Red Cliff

So yeah. I watched Red Cliff this evening as it recently came for me in the mail. AMAZING film. I ordered part two from Amazon Marketplace a short while ago. This film is epic in every sense of the word. It is gorgeously shot, edited, and acted. Tony Leung as Zhou Yu and Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang seem born to play their roles. The actors who play Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are fantastic. The biggest surprise came from Hu Jun who plays Zhao Yun Zilong. I had always viewed the person of Zhao Yun as well, boyish. Not so with Hu Jun. He played up the heroic masculinity. And it fit very well with the character. Long story short, you all need to go see this film. My only concern is that those of you who are not familiar with these characters from Chinese legend may be a little confused at first as the film presupposes, in my humble opinion, some knowledge on the part of the viewer as these characters like Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, and Zhou Yu are to the Chinese what Hamlet, Richard III, Horatio, Othello, Iago, and Brutus are to the English speaking world. They are embedded in our collective cultural consciousness. My advice: read up on the history of the Three Kingdoms and then watch this film. It's the best film of 2009 thus far. Go see it. Now.

(My) Asian Cinema Renaissance

Over the past few days I have rediscovered my appreciation for Asian history, specifically Chinese history, really specifically Three Kingdoms Era Chinese history. This passion has been refueled by YouTube excursions into the world of the Dynasty Warriors series. It's a good game series based on a fascinatingly rich period of Chinese history - The Three Kingdoms Era. Look it up on Wikipedia. You won't regret it. These viewings of cutscenes from Dynasty Warriors 6 branched into videos of east Asian Martial Arts and Weapon Katas. From there, I began watching trailers and clips from Chinese films both older and more recent. I have since ordered two films from Amazon and am considering ordering a third. Each DVD is between five and ten dollars so the expense isn't terribly great. I AM always on the look out for great deals. the films Red Cliff by John Woo and Mongol by Sergei Bodrov are in the mail for me and I am debating the wisdom of purchasing Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon starring Andy Lau and Sammo Hung. Any advice on the matter? By the way, you the reader ought to see all three of these fine films.