Red Cliff directed by John Woo, The Chinese Iliad

Red Cliff directed by John Woo, the Chinese Iliad

By Catherine Li

Throughout the centuries, every Chinese schoolboy is familiar with the stories from Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of The Three kingdoms. And those who cannot read listen intently to the tales of battles and wily stratagems recounted by storytellers in the market place or on stage performed by traveling troops of regional operas. The moment, Cao Cao, the villain, with a white painted face steps on stage, he is booed. However, when Liu Bei of Shu, the hero, and his sworn brothers, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu appear, cheers are heard. Often, after a particular favorite incident is recited, the storyteller says, “that’s enough now; come back tomorrow.” And then, the young and the old linger a little longer in case the storyteller has changed his mind.

In his Asian blockbuster movie that is presently in the theaters of southern California, Red Cliff, the modern storyteller, John Woo, recounts the same historical tale, the battle of the Red Cliff in 208 CE, taken place toward the end of a long and illustrious dynasty, the Han Dynasty, but with a new twist and perspective from that of the traditional ones. He is the grand master of storytellers with the help of cinematography, great actors, and visceral depiction of action that has dance- like qualities.

Red Cliff begins with Cao Cao, the prime minister of the last emperor of Han dynasty, a brilliant ruler, strategist, and warrior having asserted his rule over northern China. Cao Cao is confident that his military campaign of 800,000 men can subjugate the two kingdoms of Wu and Shu in the south. These two kingdoms jointly have a military force of 50,000 men. It is another story of mythical proportion like that of David and Goliath. Whereas Cao Cao schemes to usurp the Mandate of Heaven from the Han dynasty to establish a new dynasty, Wu and Shu are determined to stop Cao Cao’s lust for power.

John Woo’s epic focuses on the psychological and military battles fought between Cao Cao and Chancellor Zhuge Liang of Shu, and Viceroy Zhou Yun of Wu, the military commander-in-chief of Sun Quan. The climax of the movie is when the sky is set afire by the burning of Cao Cao’s flotilla on the river by the Red Cliff. The winners of this Chinese chess game are the heroes of a new age.

There are a number of high points in Red Cliff. Among which are the bagua battle array, stratagems of collecting 100, 000 arrows and anticipating a favorable wind to destroy Cao Cao’s flotilla by Zhuge Liang, and tricking Cao Cao to execute his two maritime commanders by Zhou Yun.

Unlike traditional portrayal of heroes and villains of the battle of Red Cliff, which lacked depth and complexity, John Woo’s main characters are multi-faceted. For example, Cao Cao is not merely a villain with a white painted face. Woo’s Cao Cao does have a heart as hard as a stone as he sends the boats carrying the infected dead across the river to the camp of the heroes. And yet, he is genuinely empathetic to his own weary soldiers and he appreciates talents in others. He also has other fine qualities. Even though Cao Cao is full of courage and treachery at the same time, he is dominated by greed. His desire to possess Xiao Qiao, the wife of Zhou Yun, becomes his downfall. During a moment of tea appreciation, Xiao Qiao points out to Cao Cao that when a cup is filled too full, it overflows. Cao Cao’s ambition leads him to great ventures and heights and when it turns into excessive greed, he is left with nothing.

John Woo’s heroes, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yun, are larger than life because of their virtues and compassion for the laobai xing, the common man. When I ask John Woo who is his favorite character in Red Cliff, he replies, “Zhou Yu is my favorite character because he has a strong sense of values. He is upright, he believes in friendship, he is a family man, and he cares for those around him. I feel that movies today lack role models like him.” And indeed Zhou Yu is portrayed as the good overcoming evil during one of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history when seventy percent of the population was decimated.

John Woo has created in his characters an element of the Chinese tragic, which is different from the Western concept of the tragic. In the West, it is pride that causes the hero who is larger than life to fall. In the Chinese tradition, one of the tragic elements is the inherent conflict between love and duty. In Red Cliff, each heroic character whether man or woman is confronted by this conflict. This Chinese tragic element has added much conflict and tension to the movie. Otherwise, the movie is simply a painting of a dragon without eyes. And the eyes of John Woo’s dragon burn with passion and power.