Red Cliff (2008)

  This was supposed to have gone up yesterday but I was hosting a party so I didn't get to it.

In 208 CE, corrupt prime minister Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) declares the leaders of the rich Southern province, Sun Quan (Chen Chang) and Liu Bei (Yong Yu), enemies of the state in a bid to crush their power and elevate his own.  Liu Bei's chief strategist, Kongming (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Sun Quan's top general, Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) form a partnership, marshaling their vastly outnumbered army and navy against the overwhelming might of Cao Cao's for a legendary battle at the foot of Red Cliff.

I don't know how much you know of Chinese history but this was all pretty new to me.  It's laid out really well, however.  The characters are immediately identified and lines are very clearly drawn.  Almost to its detriment, since it takes what I assume to be a very complicated political situation and basically tuns it into good vs evil.  Cao Cao is not only abusing his power to potentially usurp the Imperial throne, but he's also out to steal Zhou Yu's wife (Chiling Lin) because he saw her at her parents' house one day when she was young.  I could have done without that subplot entirely but it did allow her to be mournfully self-sacrificing and tragically beautiful, so yay?

John Woo has lost nothing over his many years directing action films.  There's no bullet-fu but there are tons of slo-mo shots and white doves all over the place.  The action is appropriately epic in scope with hundreds of extras supplemented by CGI falling, burning, and being peppered with arrows.  He's also mastered the ability of moving from giant-scale to individual, honing in on specific characters during the enormous final battle to keep the focus on the story and not just the carnage.

This is a great film that I think flew under the radar and deserves to be properly appreciated.  I watched it on Tubi but I'm planning on buying this one.