After more than two hours, I walked out of the Wanda cinema, finally understanding the controversy between critics and supporters. First off, Red Cliff is the first Mandarin language movie HK action director John Woo has directed in nearly 10 years. As a Chinese director who's been in Hollywood a long time, Woo definitely brings Hollywood style to the Chinese classic, making a splendid film which caters to Western audiences. And who is going to blame him? Red Cliff is a blockbuster which cost nearly 500 million yuan after all. As a Chinese historical epic, Red Cliff offers action, a real battle and legendary characters. The action sequences and characters design are worth seeing, as is the background music. You also get a glimpse of other Chinese traditional things like Cu Ju (who knew the Chinese invented soccer???) , and the Ba Gua Zhen, an element from the Chinese Art of War. But don't take them too seriously, John Woo’s Red Cliff is not a history lesson. Some plot elements are very different from real history. To an audience who is not familiar about the history of Three Kingdoms, the story must seem convoluted. So maybe that's why the epic is divided into two episodes. The first part emphasizes the individual characters and the second part (presumably) presents the battle scene. Can't wait!

By the way, Wanda’s number 9 cinema hall is really nice, big wide screen and cool sound mixing. Don’t forget to buy a ticket of the digital edition, keeping you get a much clearer pictures. The latest news shows that Red Cliff Ⅱis going to be screened in Jan 23, 2009.