red cliff Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Welcome to the first weekly edition of Asian Cinema Scene. I've written about Asian films under this moniker irregularly in the past; from now on, you can look forward to a fresh new post every Monday. (Unless something emerges from a river and snatches me in its tentacles.) Some weeks I'll concentrate on one film; today I'll roundup a few items of interest from the past week.

Sweet treat. The awesome Thai action flick Chocolate got midnight screenings Friday and Saturday in select markets, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. It looks great on the big screen, especially with an appreciative audience, but if you missed it, don't despair; look for details on the DVD release in tomorrow's Spin-ematical.

Non-deals. Will recent higher-profile Asian flicks like Tony Jaa's Ong Bak 2 or John Woo's Red Cliff (with the two parts edited into one epic) ever sell to US distributors? The European Film Market is happening this week in Berlin, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we hear something. Meanwhile, Red Cliff 2 is opening across Asia in staggered release; check one of the trailers below.

Consumer beware. DVD label Dragon Dynasty has taken a serious backward step with their decision to release The Enforcer (AKA My Father is a Hero), starring Jet Li, without the original-language Cantonese audio track. Mark Pollard of Kung Fu Cinema reviewed the new edition in detail, and also posted a response by Genius Products, distributor of the Dragon Dynasty line, to criticism expressed online, in which they claim no usable version of the original audio was available in time for the release. It's a good, crunchy action flick directed by Corey Yuen, and deserves better.

After the jump: Variety Asia says goodbye. Plus, which four films are represented in the image above? No peeking!

Many of this year's foreign and indie releases showed up on some of the more obscure top ten lists of 2008, and will no doubt be rolling out across the country in various irregular patterns all year long. For example, Steven Soderbergh's Che turned up on more than half a dozen lists that I saw (including our own James Rocchi's), yet most people haven't seen it yet. I have seen it, and I doubt it'll be sticking around long, though I greatly admire it. It's a deliberate attempt to subvert the current biopic formula, and though it's somewhat cold and ultimately a bit one-sided, it's also endlessly mesmerizing. Silent Light, the newest drama by the great and peculiar Mexican director Carlos Reygadas (Battle in Heaven) is also due to show up this month. Matteo Garrone's Italian gangster movie Gomorrah and Steve McQueen's British based-on-a-true-story drama Hunger have also placed well on several top ten and awards lists, and will be turning up in February and March.

The two-time Cannes champs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have a new one, Lorna's Silence, which I haven't seen, but that has a very nice poster. (It's supposed to be coming around in June.) And James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night), who for some mysterious reason is quite beloved in France, opened his new film, Two Lovers -- starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix -- there to great acclaim. It's due here in February. And one of my contacts tells me that Roy Andersson's outstanding deadpan Swedish comedy You, the Living, which I saw early in 2008, will finally open to theaters sometime in 2009. I'm still waiting for a release date for Kathryn Bigelow's war film Hurt Locker, but it has enough buzz that I'm not worried. I'm a little more concerned about John Woo's Chinese epic Red Cliff, which will hopefully return that master to his former glory; so far there's no U.S. release date -- and no indication that the entire, uncut film will make it over here.

When Red Cliff (Part 1) rolled out across most of Asia in July, John Woo's historical action epic generated very good box office returns, and its recent release in Japan continues the trend. Topping the charts for the second week in a row, according to Variety, Red Cliff has earned more than $18 million so far.

Part 2 of the four-hour plus Red Cliff is due for January release in Asia, and an international (i.e. short) version is also being prepped for the beginning of the year. Theatrical distribution deals are set in Europe (France, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway), with Summit Entertainment (distributor of Twilight and Sex Drive) handling international sales.

Still, no US distribution deal has been announced. What's holding things up? Will Summit take it on? Will North American audiences ever get to set Red Cliff on the big screen, where it clearly belongs? Or are distributors spooked by the prospect of marketing one more foreign-language action epic?

Red Cliff is based on the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms; the title refers to the location of a battle involving more than a million soldiers that brought an end to the Han Dynasty in 208 AD, resulting in the division of China into three kingdoms. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Lust, Caution), Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers), Zhang Fengyi (The Emperor and the Assassin), Chang Chen (Blood Brothers), and Lin Chiling (gorgeous Taiwanese model in her acting debut) star.

If you've ever seen a film by Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, you might not initially think of him to direct an action movie, even of the slower, more poetic wuxia genre that includes films like Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's Hero and other recent works. But the master director has long confessed in interviews that he'd like to make a martial arts picture, and even as far back as 2002, Hou was attached to helm an adaptation of Pei Xing's 9th century fantasy novel "Nie Yin Niang," about a female assassin, which was then reportedly titled Xia Nü.

Six years later, following his first non-Taiwanese film (the Ozu tribute Café Lumiere), the triptych Three Times and his first Western project (Flight of the Red Balloon), Hou seems to finally be on track to making his wuxia dreams come true. Variety reports that his adaptation of "Nie Yin Niang," now titled The Assassin (or maybe The Hidden Heroine, or simply Nie Yin Niang), has received funding from the Taiwanese government's National Development Fund and is therefore moving forward with a pre-production start date of October 1 and shooting expected to begin in early 2009.

Early box office returns look strong and reviews are mixed to positive for the most expensive independent Chinese production ever. John Woo's historical epic Red Cliff has opened in Asia, and Variety reports that it's off to "a smashing start," drawing big audiences on its first day of release in China (US$3.65 million), Hong Kong (US$257,500), and Taiwan ($526,000). Relative to their respective territories, those are very good numbers indeed -- it's the biggest opening day this year in Taiwan, for example.

South Korean distributor Showbox received permission from Woo to cut nine minutes from the film's 2 hour and 23 minute running time. This sounds idiotic to me, more like Showbox trying to flex their muscle, but Red Cliff still made an estimated $973,000 on opening day, more than double other Asian hits of recent years such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

Variety described Red Cliff reviews as "generally positive." Here are three English-language reviews I've found online: JoonAngDaily, The Associated Press, The Korea Times, The one from AP is entirely positive. More reactions can be found at China View. One friend of mine that's seen it says it's "good but not fantastic."

Red Cliff ends with what can only be described as a "cliffhanger": the decisive battle will be shown in the second part of the film, due for January release in Asia. All things considered, right about now I imagine Mr. Woo is relaxing in his editing suite, finishing up part two, and just smiling.

Can a director best known for bloody bullet ballets pull off a historical action epic? We'll know later this week when John Woo's Red Cliff rolls out across Asia. The film's full-length running time of more than four hours has been split in two; the first part opens in China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan on Thursday, with a release in Malaysia next week and Japan in November, according to Variety. Part two is set to debut next January.

Red Cliff, based on the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (which has been adapted for television and film multiple times), is the fulfillment of a dream for Woo, who first tried to make it nearly 20 years ago. The title refers to a battle involving more than a million soldiers that brought an end to the Han Dynasty in 208 AD, resulting in the division of China into three kingdoms. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Lin Chiling star.

Woo has been staging elaborate action sequences for many years, but hasn't tackled a project of this scale and historical sweep before. An international version, expected to run about two and a half hours, will be completed by January. No US distributor has yet been set. To get fully caught up on this sometimes-troubled production, reportedly budgeted at $80 million, read our previous reports from February 2006, September 2006, April 2007 (1), April 2007 (2), August 2007, February 2008 (trailer), and June 2008.

The world tragically lost another stuntman Monday morning, in northern Beijing, China. 23-year-old Lu Yanqing was killed in what is being reported as a "bizarre" fire involving two boats, which were being used for John Woo's latest, the historical epic Red Cliff. Woo was actually not around at the time of the accident -- he was in Hong Kong -- and has not yet been quoted with any official statement.

Under the direction of the film's second unit, the scene that resulted in tragedy featured a small, smoking boat that was to crash into a large ancient warship. Upon collision, when machines began emitting more smoke, an unexpected flame shot up, killing the one stuntman and injuring another three (or seven) people. The exact cause of the fire is being investigated, but one report says the current theory is that "the crew might have accidentally ignited a flame that came into contact with inflammable gas on a boat, setting off the fire from which Lu was unable to escape."

A famous Hong Kong action director is in an epic frame of mind. John Woo has not yet finished his two-part historical adventure Red Cliff, due out this year, but he has his next picture all ready to go. According to Variety, Woo will direct 1949, a romantic epic written by Wang Hui-ling (co-scripter of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution). Rising Taiwanese actor Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Blood Brothers) and Korean TV babe Song Hye-key (pictured) will star.

The film begins at the end of World War II and is based on real events that took place during the final years of the Chinese Civil War, right up to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Production is scheduled to begin in December, with release planned for December 2009 -- which is the 60th anniversary of the founding of a certain republic. The announcement was made in Cannes; Fortissimo Films will handle all rights outside China.

Woo stagnated in the studio system after a trio of entertaining action films (Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off ) that were much better than comparable Hollywood flicks. Having returned to Asia to make the epic Red Cliff, Woo appears ready to continue his career with more creative freedom, in partnership with producer Terence Chang. This sounds like the kind of film he should be making, with a quality screenwriter on board and two rising stars.

A trailer for John Woo's new film Red Cliff has surfaced on Yahoo Tawain, and it looks as if the old action master will no longer suffer indignities of Jean-Claude Van Damme or Ben Affleck. His first feature film since Paycheck (2003), it's a swordfighting epic that bypasses Woo's famous gunplay films (The Killer, Hard-Boiled, etc.) and goes back to his earlier films like Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979) with a dash of his epic war masterpiece Bullet in the Head (1990) thrown in for good measure. (It's also kinda sexy.)

The trailer is without English subtitles, but it's also mostly without dialogue. Set during the Three Kingdoms period of Ancient China, the film tells the story of the historical Battle of Red Cliffs. It's also apparently the most expensive Chinese film to date, costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million (US). Tony Leung Chiu Wai stars, along with Takeshi Kaneshiro, and the lovely Zhao Wei. (Former star and frequent Woo leading man Chow Yun-fat walked off the set last year.) According to the trailer, the film will be opening in the East this summer, but no U.S. release date has been set.

Ever since the elegant caper flick Once a Thief in 1991, Terence Chang has worked with director John Woo, either as producer, co-producer, or executive producer. They both moved to the United States after completing the great Hard-Boiled in 1992; Chang has produced non-Woo projects since then (notably several starring Chow Yun-Fat), but his association with Woo has been his one constant. Yet Chang told the International Herald Tribune (IHT) that he ended up in a hospital due to tension with his friend about the upcoming epic Red Cliff.

The conflict arose after Chang read the script. To tell the story properly, he realized that the running time would approach four hours and far exceed the $50 million budget that had been allocated. Woo was not happy when Chang suggested cutting a big battle scene. Eventually they worked things out and agreed that the film should be released in two parts. Chang got to work raising more money. Filming began earlier this year and should be completed this fall, in time for the first installment to open in China before the Beijing Olympics next summer.

Woo and Chang's latest project, Blood Brothers, has met with mixed response in Asia, but for Chang, who's not made a movie in Asia for 15 years, the challenges started with assembling the ensemble cast. "In Hollywood when you make a film, you lock in the actors for however long. Here, they will give you 20 days this month, 10 days another month ... when you have an ensemble film, oh my God!," he told IHT. "Some actors are doing several things at the same time: another movie, a music video. Ahhhhh! They ask you for very specific dates - but what if it rains?" One cast member suddenly quit during filming when the producers of a television show made him a better offer, which understandably shocked Chang. While the veteran producer has spent most of the past three years putting together Red Cliff, he has other irons in the fire, according to IMDb, such as a live-action version of Mulan, serial killer thriller Second Sight and Tom Tykwer's thriller The International.