Dear all,

If you enjoy South Africa or travel in general, feel free to visit my new albums of South Africa. The first album is on Safari Highlights and the second is on Western Cape. Send me your comments! I'd love to hear from you.

The hyperlink: http://gallery.me.com/pandarooster

Enjoy!

Allan

The film 'Red Cliff' has garnered much publicity and reaction from various members. To add my assessment, let me begin by camping those who liked the film from those who did not.

Most of the viewers who enjoy the film are: young, born/grew up overseas, interested (but unfamiliar) in Chinese history, non-film major, die-hard Tony fans; you may be some or all of the above. Those who did not enjoy the film may be because they are: old (like me), history buffs who read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms too many times and took it seriously (like me), and film-majors or critics (not me!) If you are a die-hard Takeshi-fan, you probably are (or should be) in this camp as well.

It should not surprise anyone that the scrīpt of the film did not follow either the history or the novel closely. For the sake of creating what they think is commercially saleable, the screenplay writers made substantial changes to the original story. Major characters were trivialised (e.g. Lu Su); minor ones were promoted (e.g. both Zhao Wei's character, Sun Shangxiang and Lin Chin-Ling's character, Xiao Qiao) or created (e.g. the kid playing flute). Relations, reasons and motives were altered (e.g. in the novel, Zhou Yu was constantly envious and fearful of Zhuge Liang, and their relations were never cordial), and incidents and elements were fabricated (e.g. the calf-delivery scene). For a good recap of where the film departed from the novel, see Wikipedia's rendition of 'Red Cliff (film)' .

The offspring of such massive adaptation is a film that contains several memorable action sequences, but misses the mark in depth, breadth, and core values. Some scenes are downright awkward if not altogether mushy. For example, the camaraderie that Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu developed after Zhuge delivered a calf for Xiao Qiao - is as contrived as can be - barely tolerable for a low-budget soap opera, but unconscionable for a USD80 million production. My nomination for the weakest line dialogue of the film goes to Zhuge's response to Zhou Yu when the latter remarked that they were comrades for the moment, but he could foresee that they may face each other as enemies one day - 'I hope that day never comes!'

The film does not bode well for the reputation of John Woo as a serious director. It would be unfair,  however, to blame all of the film's failings on Woo. The film has suffered from a lot of personnel issues. From the origins of a stellar cast, the roll-call spun like a hotel's revolving door. Chow Yun-fat was in (as Zhou Yu), and Tony Leung (as Zhuge), and Ken Watanabe (as Cao Cao); then Tony Leung pulled out, replaced by Takeshi (as Zhuge). Chow Yun-fat quit just before the first shoot, and Tony Leung came back as his replacement, Watanabe was cut because it was rumoured the role of Cao Cao was too important a role for a Japanese actor. And now it is rumoured that Chow Yun-fat will be back in (in another role). Chow may have recoiled from horror after he read the revised scrīpt and backed off. I know not why he wants to back in.

Despite all of its shortcomings, the film has generated keen interest. I watched the film with my son, who goes to high school in the States. He told me afterwards that it was really good. So I thank the film for arousing my son's interest in Chinese history.  Credits should also go to Lin Chin-ling. Lin appeared completely unfazed by the steamier scenes, very unexpected from a model turned rookie actress. She was intelligent and beautiful, even though her sultry look is too modern for a woman living in 208 A.D. The eloquent lines she was given helped. In contrast, Zhao Wei, a seasoned actress, looked befuddled. Her only moment came in the form of a cutesy but campy line (國家興亡，匹女有責）"When a nation's fate hangs in the balance, each woman has a duty to serve!" 

For Tony's fans, his performance is adequate. For the sake of selling the film, Zhou Yu was converted into a warrior and martial artist, which in fact he was not. His was the principal role, towering above that of Takeshi Kaneshiro's Zhuge. On the other hand, I need to poll all those die-hard Takeshi fans out there in the cosmic universe. How did you rate your idol's role and performance? Did you protest against his role being marginalised for the benefit of Tony? Did his character (Zhuge) seem...a little wimpy? Did you blush when he was made to utter that infamous line (see above)?

Stay tuned for the second episode... 

Best scene: the battle scenes, especially the "Octagon Formation"(八卦陣)  

Worst feature: campy dialogue