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Preparing for battle
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-24 14:40
A war scene featured in John Woo's soon-to-be-released film Red Cliff. John Woo is back. After his glorious decade as one of the most successful Chinese filmmakers in Hollywood, the Face/Off and M:I2 maestro has returned to depict a legendary battle in Chinese history. Named Red Cliff (Chi Bi), the film revolves around a battle in the year AD 208 between the allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. It was after this battle the state of the Three Kingdoms (AD220-280), - when China had three rulers - was established. The battle of Red Cliff in the context of the story of the Three Kingdoms has long been Woo's dream; he spent four years preparing the project before shooting started last April. "For me, the Red Cliff battle is a story of the weak winning out over the strong, which cannot be achieved without Chinese intelligence, courage and, most importantly, unity," he tells China Daily. "But these Chinese virtues are rarely seen in today's wuxia, or martial arts movies - the best perceived genre of Chinese films in international cinema." Making this film to reveal the Chinese people's spiritual world has motivated the 62-year-old helmer to complete this $80 million ($1 million from his own pocket) extravaganza. |
