Chi bi (2008)

A PPCC exclusive!


Whoa! Big time!

Yes, the PPCC has got its grubby little hands on a bad-ass Chinese epic - before its international release! Mwahaha! And before you start all going, like, "OMG the PPCC is totally such a buyer of illegal DVDs!" We swear on our love of Shashi that this is the real deal, purchased from a reputable movie and music chain in China. Even more interestingly, this 2.5-hour film is merely part 1 of a promised four-hour epic (source: Red Cliff Wiki article). Outside of China, the international version will merely be a single 2.5-hour film. Envy us! Enveeeeee!

So. The film: Red Cliff.

Since the original rumors began, almost two years ago, that John Woo was going to direct some mega historical martial arts film, the PPCC had been in a tizzy of excitement. The original star line-up was practically a roll-call of our favorite Asian actors: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Chow Yun-Fat, Ken Watanabe... Unfortunately, the tide of rumors changed, and Chow Yun-Fat and Ken Watanabe eventually dropped out, to be replaced instead by that ultimate stud of hotness, Takeshi Kaneshiro. Totally OK by us.

Anyway, we knew that the Time of Red Cliff's Release was soon approaching, and when we were sent to China on an errand last month, we quickly carpe diemed the opportunity to buy anything - any-thing - Red Cliff and/or Tony Leung Chiu-Wai-related. (Whose name, incidentally, is not pronounced like that at all in Cantonese... and this led to much jocularity and confusion.) When we went down to the (legitimate!) movie store and browsed the Tony Leung stacks, we were surprised and delighted to see Red Cliff all prim and ready to be purchased. "Wow!" we thought, idiotically. "They really are technologically advanced here! They've got DVDs of movies that haven't even finished filming yet!" (Hmm.) So we bought it and petted it and hugged it and loved it. And then we watched it.

"Enough of this gonzo reviewing, what about the freakin' film?" you ask.


Sigh, Takeshi Kaneshiro... you look so fly when you get all contemplative and such.

Well, first, a couple disclaimers. Disclaimer #1: This is our first John Woo film. We reckon it always takes a bit of time to get into the rhythm of a director's style. John Woo's style, seemingly characterized by swooping, ultra-fast cuts and a general impatience in all matters action, was like a new language for us. Disclaimer #2: Maybe the international release (which you minions will be forced to watch, ha ha ha!) will be more non-Chinese-friendly and full of helpful exposition, but this film seemed to assume a whole canvas of background historical knowledge. We got heavy Trojan War-esque or Devdas-esque vibes - you know, this was the type of story that everyone (except us) is apparently familiar with. We, however, had no idea who Zhou Yu and Zhu-ge Liang were, and so we spent quite some time going, "Wait, what? Who? Where? WHY?!"

Here, then, are our (uneducated) thoughts.

What: So back in the day, there was the Han Dynasty. The Dynasty's Prime Minister was this super-corrupt dude named Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi... resembling uenxpectedly Takashi Shimura). One day, Cao Cao was all like, "I'm gonna proclaim war on the world!" And the bird-loving twentysomething Emperor Xian was like, "Uh... okay." So Cao Cao embarked to kick some ass.

Who: Arrayed against him are a motley troupe of legendary awesomenesses, led by the rebel Liu Bei (You Young). There's the smooth-talking Chief Strategist, Zhu-ge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). There's the wild-haired Zhang Fei (Zang Jinsheng). There's the stoic and heroic Zhao Yun (Hu Jun). With their forces combined, they are awesome... but they're still missing the key to magnificence. That key is discovered in the new-formed alliance with the southern state of Wu. When the uber-diplomatic (you'll agree with anything he says!) Zhu-ge goes off in search of some military help, he's introduced to Wu's commanding officer and viceroy, Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). Immediately, the sparks of recognition and awesomeness fly: apart from sharing a sort of good-humored meditative personality, a love of fans and music, both Zhu-ge and Zhou are military masterminds. When Zhou rocks out on his guqin (sort of like a lap guitar), and when Zhu-ge helps Zhou's horse give birth to a little horseling, the friendship is solid. Yay!

Where: Now, armed with the diabolically clever Zhou, the rebel army is ready to kick some butt. When Cao Cao's forces ride up along the Yangtze to Red Cliff, the final climax mounts up into an enormous battle.

Why?!: All to be continued in part 2!


Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Zhou Yu (left) and Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhu-ge Liang (right).

So what sort of impression did this film make to a person as ignorant in Chinese history as the PPCC? Generally, very good! It was a straightforward epic - calling to mind Lawrence of Arabia, Return of the King and anything else large and glorious. It was all sweeping shots of moving armies, sprays of blood and gold-tinted horizons. The music was similarly evocative, resembling more (to our ears) 60s-era Hollywood epic rather than, for example, the minimalist traditional Chinese of Tan Dun. The emotional tone was also fairly simple, in keeping with the unambiguous Legendary-ness of the story: no one was morally gray, everyone was brave and honor-bound to kick-ass. There were some half-hearted attempts to be gender friendly in a clearly very gender unfriendly historical context with the occasional, "Girls are people too!" line from the tomboy princess lady (who resembled very much Juhi Chawla, by the way).

That's not to say the characterizations weren't complex. Quite the opposite! Soaked in that Stuff of Legend vibe, Zhou Yu and Zhu-ge Liang leaped out from the screen as fully-formed and quite interesting heroic ideals. Both seemed more philosophical musicians than hard-bitten military commanders, carrying themselves like young Obi-Wan Kenobis (only with a sense of humor). Their interactions were also wonderfully sweet, such as in one scene, when Zhou approaches Zhu-ge while the latter is fanning his pigeons.

"What are you doing?" Zhuo asks.

"I just gave them a bath," Zhu-ge explains as he fans. "I'm drying them off."

"Won't they catch a cold?"

Zhu-ge quickly stops, a look of horror on his face.

These gentle, humorous exchanges were wonderfully juxtaposed against the harsh bloodbaths that were the battles. Indeed, when, in another scene, Zhou Yu sighs that, "After my first war, I never wished for a second," you actually believe him. Unlike the macho, strutting war heroes of the usual Western war epic, Zhou Yu and Zhu-ge Liang genuinely seem like easygoing pacifists with an ironic talent for war. Zhou Yu's not just paying lip-service to the world weary idea of "one too many battles" - he genuinely wants to just get back to rocking out on his guqin and tending to all things domestic with his gentle wife, Xiao Qiao (Chiling Lin).

Now we at the PPCC have no idea if these characterizations are in keeping with the legendary mythos, or if they've been colored by the performances and interpretations of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Both actors are indeed known for their "strong, silent type" roles - they're both very good at exuding charisma and intensity with merely a glance or wry half-smile (especially in Tony Leung's case - oh, be still, our heart!). Note, for example, Kaneshiro as the earnest warlord in the previously PPCCed The Warlords. Note also Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as the evil-yet-vulnerable collaborator in Ang Lee's X-rated Lust, Caution or as the calligraphy-inspired, softspoken Broken Sword in Zhang Yimou's marvelous Hero. Suffice to say, both of these guys just ooze thoughtful reserve.

The rest of the cast unfortunately falls a bit by the wayside thanks to Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro's talents. Chiling Lin, as the reportedly "most beautiful woman in China", seemed nice and... well, cute. The fiery tomboy princess was a lot more fun - though we were a little annoyed to see her "tomboy" behavior ridiculed and relegated to sitcom-ish buffoonery. Thankfully, she gets to kick butt in the final battle and set off some sparks of mutual attraction with Zhu-ge (who knows awesomeness when he sees it!). Zhang Fengyi, who played the villainous Cao Cao, was pretty fun - chewing up some scenery here, lazily lopping off some messenger's head there, but we're still waiting to see that bombastic, warlord spirit we're expecting from that type of character.

Overall, the film drops us in media res and leave us hanging with a To Be Continued. The main plot arc centred on Zhu-ge convincing Zhou to come fight, but the film ends before we get to see a proper gloriously large (and thankfully inevitable) showdown between Cao Cao and the rebel forces. But no worries - this is, after all, Part 1 of a 2-part film series. And we expect that many of the Chinese viewers will already be familiar with the conclusion (?).

For those, like the PPCC, that tend to devour cultures like they were chocolate cake, this is a great and fun dip into Chinese history and culture, starring two of Hong Kong's most likable actors. Recommended!

Tau ming chong (2007)

Trailer with English subtitles.

Peter Chan's Tau ming chong (The Warlords) brings together three towering icons of popular Chinese cinema: Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. This historical war epic is much less elegant than the wuxia-style martial arts films which have become popular in the West ever since Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The Warlords, like its title, is a film almost fanatical in its love of war; it is bloodlust on celluloid. Expect no elegant flying through trees, no bloodless Buddhist scuffling, no meditations on discipline and duty. This is a film where limbs fly, gore splatters, and the noise is deafening.


Nice composition.


Even nicer.

In some ways, it resembles Kenneth Branagh's Henry V in showing the exhiliration and horror of the battlefield. Like Branagh's film, it follows an army making its bloody way to history. And, like Henry V, The Warlords is careful to emphasize the honorless, hero-less difficulties of war. It glorifies nothing, though it does sometimes linger on particularly nasty details like a macabre voyeur. The three heroes of this film - the ruthless and tormented Pang (Jet Li), the slightly more moral but equally tormented Er Hun (Andy Lau), and the blindly devotional Zhang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) - wax and wane in their morality. They are ambiguous, violent creatures - sometimes revelling in their success on the battlefield, sometimes appalled by it. Just as greed was the driving motivation of everyone in Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, hunger seems to be the driving motivation of everyone in The Warlords. Literal hunger drives the former bandits Er Hun and Zhang to become soldiers, and hunger for military validation drives Pang. In one sequence, a siege ends just because both sides are just... so... hungry!


And yet more excellent composition.

The plot is very strong. The film opens during a vicious battle, and a moment later, we are shown the smoking carnage. From a pile of corpses, Pang emerges, dazed and unharmed. He stumbles along dusty country roads, eventually following Lian (Jinglei Xu) back to her village, obviously starving. There, he breaks down and tells her: he was a general, but all of his men died, and he had played dead in order to survive. "He died in that battle," the narrator informs us. The narrator - who continually intimates to Pang's moral backslide - turns out to be the (unbelievably handsome, but no matter) Zhang. After tussling with Pang over the latter's shiny boots, Zhang is revealed to be a bandit - since Pang is such a good fighter, he invites him to join their bandity crew. Leader of the bandit crew is Er Hun (Andy Lau), who is introduced to us as rough, vicious, but with a dose of honor. After every fight, he pours a drink to his fallen comrades. Zhang, Er Hun and Pang attack a passing army in order to steal their food. When Imperial troops charge their village, humiliate Er Hun and demand that they give themselves up, Pang hatches a better scheme: join the army!


Yep, you guessed it. Great composition. Also, best scene in the film. Behold, the ultra handsome and morally weird Zhang (Takeshi Kaneshiro).


And behold the noble-fied, tormented Er Hun (Andy Lau).

Naturally, everyone is stunned. This is the dishonorable, cowardly general, who just attacked his own side after joining the bandits. Pang, however, reasons that the army will give the men in the village a steady supply of income and food. Zhang suggests that the three become blood brothers - since no one trusts Pang's suggestion, only by the ceremony of blood brotherhood will they agree to join the army. Of course, Zhang ominously narrates during these scenes: "Pang later told me he did not believe in the blood brothers ceremony."

And off they go! While Er Hun and Zhang are teased as country bumpkins by the Imperial commanders, Pang impresses them with his ruthlessness. Soon, the three men have become veritable warlords - winning battle after battle thanks to Pang's tactics and Er Hun and Zhang's bravery. This is certainly the first movie the PPCC has ever seen where warlords are given a musical montage of success as if they were the underdog baseball team continually winning upsets. Anyway, along the way, a number of difficult moral situations are presented, establishing a tense triumvirate: Er Hun finds it more and more impossible to stomach the ugliness of Pang's belligerance, Pang is becoming more and more blindly ambitious, and Zhang is getting caught between the two - doing Pang's dirty work, but feeling as bad as Er Hun does about it.


Fab composition. Yet again.


Do I even need to say it?

At its best, the film is exhilirating, epic, devestating and fun. The sequence with the SouZon prisoners of war is very powerful, and the following sequence of the three men's rise to power - where cuts of a meta-play-within-the-film are interspersed with the actual events - is truly wonderful. Yet, at its worst, the film turns macho and melodramatic. The music is relentless, and while it hits the right notes sometimes, we spend a lot of time listening to cheesy bombast. The emotional cues are overpowering and (mostly) overdone - again, with the exception of the SouZou POW scene, which was large and loud, but absolutely spot-on.

Jet Li is wonderful when he plays ruthless, driven characters - such as the nameless protagonist in Hero - and here that ruthlessness is wonderfully complex. For a character that shows vulnerability so early on, it is remarkable to watch Pang harden into the film's villain. Also notable is how beefy and tired he looked compared to other roles. But maybe Jet's just gettin' older.

Andy Lau is great as the tormented Er Hun - we've seen him play sinister before (Infernal Affairs, House of Flying Daggers), and we were expecting more of the same here. Yet he surprised us continually by softening into the film's screaming conscious (literally). He also looked very beefy and exhausted, though this was integral to the role. Or maybe Andy's just gettin' older too.

Meanwhile, the deceptively innocent good looks of Takeshi Kaneshiro are used well in this - his boyish charm and easy smile masking a frighteningly weird logic. It's easy to forget that he's the blood brother who is the most violent - because, even as he commits the film's gravest evils, he does so without malice. Once again, the SouZou POW scene is a good example. (And it doesn't appear that Takeshi's aged a day since heating the screen in House of Flying Daggers.)


He's holding a head in this scene.

Overall, a really interesting film in terms of its themes and complex characterizations, but expect a good dose of cheese as well.