MOVIE: RED CLIFF

Some time during the 133 minutes of John Woo’s hugely extravagant epic, you may wonder why one of the 800,000 men in a Chinese army didn’t think it just a bit odd that a shapely female (Vicki Zhao) had suddenly turned up in their ranks. She’s a spy for the Wu Kingdom led by Zhou Yu (Tony Leung), but then realism has no role here. During the elaborate, mammoth and spectacular battles, the warriors pull arrows out of their flesh while blood spurts like a hose, and their plucky comrades say, “Try and endure the pain!” They do too, and meanwhile the shrewd generals exchange meaningful looks which seem to say – victory is ours! The cheesy, propagandist style is probably ironic, but we are left in no doubt they mean it. (RE)