Red Cliff

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Red Cliff

R,

2009,

2h 28m,

History/

Drama/

Action/

Adventure/

War

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Watchlist

89%

113 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

10,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

89%

Tomatometer

113 Reviews

78%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

In ancient China, the emperor of the Han Dynasty allows General Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) to declare war against the rebellious southern provinces, with the intention of unifying the entire country. Cao's large army quickly advances, killing civilians and soldiers alike. To resist Cao, the southern warlords form an alliance led by Viceroy Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Outnumbered, Zhou relies upon elaborate formations and unorthodox strategies to fight against Cao's overwhelming forces.

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Critics Consensus

Featuring some impressively grand battlefield action, John Woo returns to Asia and returns to form in the process for this lavish and slick historical epic.

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Simon Abrams

House Next Door

Mar 29, 2011

Cleaner and probably more rewatchable than Red Cliff 2.

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J. Hoberman

Village Voice

Jun 29, 2010

The director's magnum opus.

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Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Jan 22, 2010

3/5

You may have the biggest flat-screen DLP monitor in the city, but Red Cliff will never look half as spectacular as it will on the big -- and I mean really big -- screen.

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Trevor Johnston

Radio Times

Aug 18, 2026

4/5

It's undeniably a long haul, but there's enough derring-do and epic sweep here to carry the audience along regardless.

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Aug 30, 2023

2/4

The prestige of the story doesn’t forgive the fact that John Woo lost his edge years ago, and that’s fully evident in every frame of this overlong epic.

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Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Sep 21, 2020

3.5/4.0

Tony Leung is powerful and involving as a sort of peaceful, poetic warrior who largely serves as the film's heroic figure.

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Ron L

Jun 10, 2018

It's a high budget Hollywood style movie by John Woo, who is well recognized director in many US Jet Li films. However, aside from historical inaccuracy, the fight scenes were pretty much ninja turtlesque... Come on, 5 guys defeat 10s of thousands of troops? Ridiculous. It just more a kungfu movie than "historical drama." but perhaps what is most ridiculous is the need to push modern SJW progressive lunacy in the plot line. Seriously, ancient China would not have allowed much of Zao Wei's character to run amok like that. Totally unrealistic and stupid.

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Apr 24, 2018

Epic film of a battle from real life Chinese history.

Hagrid G

May 21, 2017

I saw the short version (this) but it seems the long two-part version is better. Epic story and battles but so much looked so advanced that I checked for accuracy. It is not appart from the costumes, see https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3t22nj/is_the_movie_red_cliff_historically_accurate/ Very good film but we are not learning much facts about the era with this film.

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Kylo R

Jan 11, 2017

I saw the short version and it thrilled me . A powerful story that is told in a powerful film. The scenery, the movement of the camera, the wonderful choreography of battles, the smart/ sharp/ some-times-funny dialogues/script, serve well to this masterpiece. I just obtained the original extended version and I'm more than longing to get a bucket of popcorn to just sit there and watch it.

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John Woo

Director

Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Zhou Yu

Takeshi Kaneshiro

Zhuge Liang

Fengyi Zhang

Cao Cao

Chang Chen

Sun Quan

Wei Zhao

Sun Shangxiang

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92%

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Synopsis

In ancient China, the emperor of the Han Dynasty allows General Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) to declare war against the rebellious southern provinces, with the intention of unifying the entire country. Cao's large army quickly advances, killing civilians and soldiers alike. To resist Cao, the southern warlords form an alliance led by Viceroy Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Outnumbered, Zhou relies upon elaborate formations and unorthodox strategies to fight against Cao's overwhelming forces.

Director: John Woo
Producer: Terence Chang, Sanping Han, John Woo
Screenwriter: John Woo, Chan Hon, Cheng Kuo, Heyu Sheng
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Production Co: China Film Group Corp., Beijing Film Studio, Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG) [hk], Lion Rock Productions, Shanghai Film Group
Rating: R (Sequences of Epic Warfare)
Genre: History, Drama, Action, Adventure, War
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 20, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 24, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $626.8K
Runtime: 2h 28m

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