Days of Being LJ

I used to worship Roland Emmerich; I still do to a certain extent. Of course I’ve been laughed at every time I’ve mentioned this fact in cultural studies classes and that Independence Day is one of my favourite films and is the one that really made me consider filmmaking as a viable career path (no matter how deluded that notion is now).

Emmerich has made some cult masterpieces of genre filmmaking, Universal Soldier, Stargate, the fore mentioned ID4, but ID4 was his magnum opus, it started the entire genre of end of the world blockbuster epics and it will be the film that has and will define his entire career.

It was also the last good film he ever made…unless you count The Patriot as a good film. I haven’t seen it in it’s entirety so I can’t judge but that film was an anomaly amongst The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC and not to mention Godzilla (which I personally thought was the death of his career)

Did 2012 fail like all his other films since 1996? Yup, even though David and Margaret were highly generous and gave it 3.5 stars, 2012 was just another film which drowned narcissistically in its love for VFX.

I can forgive bad writing and a ridiculous plot, elements which form the basis of a disaster blockbuster. But the problem here was the lack of charismatic actors or characters even to carry the bad writing and plot. The 3rd rate cast with the likes of Danny Glover just leave me cold, cold like the frickin’ Antarctic tundra.

Add to the mix, horrible camerawork and cinematography (shit what cinematography anyway, everything was green screened to death) and a forgettable score (David Arnold where were you?) you end up with a general mess of a film. And with a running time of 158min, a much too long mess of a film which became a highly uncomfortable experience for my bladder.

So what was I expecting? I haven’t seen The Day After Tomorrow or 10,000BC so I had no idea how badly Emmerich had lost his mojo. I wanted some sort of tie in to Mayan mythology rather than the blunt objective driven mantra of: “oh man, how much of the earth can be destroy and how many people we can kill?”

In the end the main reason 2012 failed was that as a result of the culmination of all its points of failure, we as an audience just couldn’t connect, not to the characters, not to the situations, nothing, nada. It’s like watching paint dry with a really awesome subwoofer mix.

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I was lucky enough to get in on the Sydney premiere which meant I enjoyed the screening surrounded by a lot of movie critics (including Margaret & David), and an occasional C-list TV celeb. It reminded me of the time when I actually really wanted to be a film reviewer. I still think it’s a pretty awesome job, and you don’t have to pay to see trash like 2012.

LJK film blockbuster, disaster, film review, opinion, roland emmerich

In recent years Chinese historical epics have been the downfall of many great Chinese directors. Wu Ji (The Promise) drew scathing criticism and various parodies almost ending Chen Kai Ge’s illustrious career, whilst Curse of the Golden Flower definitely didn’t help Zhang Yi Mou’s quest for the elusive Oscar for best foreign film. John Woo joins this distinguished list as he tries to tackle, in Red Cliff, a few chapters from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of China’s most famous and lauded pieces of literature. And tackle, Woo does, with his uncompromisingly brash and heavy directorial hands.

Of course this is not to say that Red Cliff is not enjoyable, in fact I’m sure it’ll be very enjoyable if:

a. You know nothing about Chinese history
b. You like never ending action sequences
c. You hate dissecting films

And if you fit into any of the above categories then please don’t read any further because we are very likely to disagree on this film. So here goes, a short dissection of Red Cliff:

Cinematic Techniques

Whilst  Curse of the Golden Flower indulged in it’s own visual excesses (and Chow Yun Fat indulged in his own hammy acting), Zhang Yi Mou is professional enough to keep the film EPIC, in technique and in tone. In Red Cliff John Woo reverts back to his sophomore homages to the Shaw Brothers era. Whist zoom-ins and time lapse montages worked in the Kung-Fu fiction of Hong Kong cinema in the 70s or in the Chow Yun Fat gun toting action excesses of 80s-90s HK cinema, they tend to cheapen the experience when you’re going for historical EPIC.

With such historical significance presented in Red Cliff you can’t help feel a bit dirty when hit with these amateurish odes to Woo’s ego. The doves, the Mexican standoff (this time with swords rather than the handguns) and hackneyed montages elicit faint nervous laughter rather than emotional empathy (e.g. like the final scene in The Killer, most of Face Off, various scenes in Bullet in the Head). Of course Woo is one of the last directors I’d expect to attempt gritty realism, except even in light of the exaggerated motifs and techniques he uses, he IS capable of toning it down. (Watch the first half of  Bullet in the Head and you might agree), 90% of the time he just chooses not to.

Also the editor responsible should be SHOT for indulging in Woo’s slow superimposed montages, for example, Tony Leung’s contemplative face, superimposed on top of scenes from nature. What does this mean? I don’t know! That Zhou Yu is conflicted and angry like nature? Only Woo knows. Shit like this just makes me cry when I watch films, cry out of sheer frustration.

Characters

I can’t comment on how much character assassination took place since I’ll ashamedly admit to the fact that I haven’t yet read Three Kingdoms (I’ll will be remedying this soon in the future). Although I’ll comment on the following:

Casting - Woo falls into the pit of hell called “Pan Asian Casting”, I’ve elaborated more here in my review of The Shinjuku Incident. Basically this means, take some top actors from various territories around Asia with large potential markets for the film (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan etc) mix them into a hasty shot production, then market to the relevant territories using their images. It’s the worst thing that has happened to Asian cinema, it encourages inconsistent performances, hammy acting and worst of all, allows someone like Lin Chi-Ling to be in a feature film.

It’s funny how even when given the length of 2 films, Woo can’t cover the necessary character development needed for the emotional and intellectual depth crucial in tackling Three Kingdoms. If Peter Jackson could sell me the ENTIRE fellowship + Sauron + Saruman + Bilbo etc in the 1st LOTR film, then John, you can do so in 2 films with Liu Bei & his cronies, Zhu Ge Liang, Zhou Yu, Cao Cao etc etc.
Alas, when 60% of the film is taken up by poor extras getting hacked over and over again, there’s not much left for Characterisation. Which brings me to…

Action Scenes

What can I say? The CGI was impressive for a Chinese production (on DVD anyway) but again Woo just exaggerates to excess. The thousands of boats stretching across the Yangtze? Fer crying out loud, show some restraint, a little realism never hurt anyone, especially when you’re dealing with history and not something like Lord of the Rings.

The action set pieces were done well as expected (and yes that probably was 20 000 poor extras slaughtered in the background rather than pure CGI). But there was just too much screen time, you felt that by the 50th arrow, the 20th spear to the chest, the 100th soldier bludgeoned to death, the audience would have got the point. If they didn’t well then you shouldn’t really be making films for audiences like that in the first place. I don’t need to see that arrow going into the guys chest from 5 different camera angles in slow motion, this isn’t the Olympics, please move on.

And there-in lies the biggest problem for Red Cliff.

DULLNESS

the cardinal sin of filmmaking.

mindless violence and hackery leaves the viewer disensitized and therefore when you actually WANT to make an emotional impact (i.e in the last battle) the viewer is already expecting it, the arrows, the spears and the bludgeoning. Less is more, and it’s clear that Woo does not subscribe to this motto.

But hey…

Look it’s not a horrifically bad film, it will garn some good reviews, sweep the HKFA and Golden Horse awards but by no means is it a masterpiece…or even a very good film. The thing is that should Red Cliff have had a different director, Chen Kai Ge, Zhang Yi Mou, Ang Lee or even perhaps a 6th Gen Mainland director (Shit perhaps Tsui Hark even) someone with more finesse than John Woo, it could have been something incredible…and that lost chance is what makes watching Red Cliff ultimately a frustrating affair.

I’ve noticed that on rotten tomatoes, Red Cliff is at 90%, but it seems like most of the reviewers saw the international cut where both films where combined into 1 single 2.5 hour film. This could have been a better experience since superfluous story lines (like the random Zhao Wei behind enemy lines plot line) could be cut, the action tightened and overall the character development would be worthy of a single film.

Perhaps I expected too much, maybe it is John Woo’s best film in 10 years,  but when you realise that the last watchable John Woo film was Mission Impossible II, it’s not a great stretch to say that Red Cliff is a clear achievement. However in comparison to some very VERY good Chinese Historical films in the past (The Emperor and the Assassin, The Emperor’s Shadow and even Hero to a degree), Red Cliff pales in comparison.

LJK film chinese cinema, film review, hong kong cinema, john woo, takeshi kaneshiro, three kingdoms, tony leung