San Diego Asian Film Festival 2009

Hong Kong action maestro John Woo directed classics such as The Killer, Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow, setting the threshold for Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s. Then in the 1990s, he directed Hollywood blockbusters like Face/Off and Mission Impossible II for Western audiences. For RED CLIFF, Woo returns to his roots to film the most expensive film in Asia's history. Over the past few years, Woo gave birth to this epic in two full parts and found great box office success in Asia. For the Western audience release coming to theatres in select cities later this year, Woo has made a combined version of the two parts (totaling 4 hrs) into a 2 hour and 28 minute edited version.

Most viewers will prob not miss the nearly 100 minutes on the cutting room floor given how dazzling and visionary this epic film remains. Woo based his latest masterpiece on the legendary Battle of Red Cliff, in which a force of fifty thousand defeated an army of nearly one million.

The battle took place in 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty when shrewd Prime Minister Cao Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale, led by the Prime Minister, himself. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance. Numerous battles of strength and wit ensued, both on land and on water, eventually culminating in the battle of Red Cliff. During the legendary battle, two thousand ships were burned, and the course of Chinese history was changed forever.

With an all-star Asian cast including Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs, Hero), Takeshi Kaneshiro (this SDAFF's K-20), Wei Zhao (So Close) and Fengyi Zhang (in the upcoming sequel to Eat Drink Man Woman), RED CLIFF is nothing less than old fashioned mythic entertainment from Asian cinema's greatest living legend.

Co-presented by:
San Diego Chinese Historical Museum
UCSD Chinese Students and Scholars Association