Red Cliff

[GeneChing]

Sichuan is where the quake happened.

"Red Cliff" to Come Out Huge
2008-06-25 20:58:46

Director John Woo wants his new film "Red Cliff" to have a memorable opening, and the construction of a massive set where the film will premiere started one week ahead of time.

The tourism hotspot Wuhou Memorial Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where "Red Cliff" will have its global premiere on July 3, welcomed on Wednesday the arrival of ten cargo trucks loaded with equipment, West China Metropolis Daily reports.

On the trucks were sound and stage lighting instrument worth over one million yuan (145,679 U.S. dollars), the newspaper says.

At the center stage, workers have repainted the old red wall, and in the following days they will install complex stage decorations and several LCD walls.

Because "Red Cliff" is about a historical battle in 208 AD during the Three Kingdoms period, rows of ancient battle drums will be displayed at the sides of the stage.

On the night of the premiere, the number of performers will excel 2,000, West China Metropolis Daily says. A hundred relief workers of the Sichuan earthquake will be invited to the event, and ten of them will walk the red carpet with film stars.

Wuhou Memorial Temple was chosen to host the premiere because it was built to pay tribute to Zhuge Liang, a legendary military strategist in the Three Kingdoms period who is one of the protagonists in "Red Cliff," portrayed by Takeshi Kaneshiro.

The film, to be released in two segments, also features Tony Leung, Chang Chen, Chiling Lin, and Zhao Wei.

[GeneChing]

...on the big silver screen.

Red Cliff set to lift quake gloom
By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-03 08:17

Films have a very important social role to play. That view will be consolidated tonight when China's most expensive blockbuster premieres at an iconic venue in Chengdu.

The country's film community has done much to help the May 12 earthquake survivors in Sichuan province. But the opening of $80-million Red Cliff (Chibi) could well be the most helpful.

Directed by Hong Kong-born veteran John Woo, Red Cliff opens tonight in Chengdu's Wu Hou Shrine - the first time such an event will be held in a top cultural heritage building.

Woo, who has worked in Hollywood too, is also the first person to organize a big public event in the capital of Sichuan province after the quake.

The shrine, built in AD 223, consists of memorial halls and mausoleums of warlord Liu Bei and his strategist Zhuge Liang - both of whose characters play leading roles in the film - and ministers and generals of the Shu kingdom, one of the three kingdoms that co-ruled China from 220 to 280.

About 2,000 people will watch the film tonight, but before that they have to pass through six security checks.

And the grand stage in front of Jianxin Hall in the shrine complex will see about 2,000 actors perform live.

Elementary school students will recite an ancient poem about history, traditional Sichuan mask-changing performers will show their electrifying skill, and musicians will play the ancient instrument, guqin, an important prop in the film too.

The film's behind-the-scene footage will also be screened, as will be its 10-minute trailer.

Woo has invited 100 doctors, nurses, soldiers, volunteers and journalists who experienced the quake and helped with the rescue and relief work or reported about them to attend the ceremony. Ten of them will walk the red carpet with the stars.

Xie Hui, head of the Wu Hou Shrine, says the premiere will show people that Chengdu is recovering from the quake.

Mainland actor Hu Jun, who plays a fearless general in the film, says he will be more than delighted if the film can help people forget their pain and regain courage even for two hours.

The local government has supported Woo's effort wholeheartedly. The film that has grabbed Asia's and the world's attention even before being screened is considered by many as an excellent vehicle that can promote Chengdu.

Grand opening ceremonies have become more of a norm with Chinese blockbusters after Zhang Yimou's Hero premiered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing six years ago.

For his Curse of the Golden Flower, about 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) was spent on its premiere two years ago. And the opening ceremony of Chen Kaige's The Promise cost 20 million yuan ($2.9 million).

Red Cliff hits the screen on the Chinese mainland, and in Hong Kong and Taiwan, on July 10. Its global release is scheduled for next year.

[GeneChing]

Of all of Woo's flicks to reference - Face Off & MI2?!

Woo's $80 Million `Red Cliff' Has Recouped Costs, Producer Says
By Le-Min Lim
Enlarge Image/Details

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Investors in John Woo's blockbuster ``Red Cliff'' have recouped the $80 million spent making Asia's most expensive film, said producer Terence Chang.

The sale of the movie's distribution rights in Asia has covered its costs, Chang said in a phone interview. ``Red Cliff,'' a five-hour story about warring nations in China in 208 A.D. that waged an epic naval battle, is the first movie Woo has directed in Asia since he left Hong Kong for Hollywood two decades ago to make hits like ``Face/Off'' and ``Mission: Impossible II.''

``The scale, reach and appeal of this movie's subject matter is unprecedented in Asia,'' said Joseph Liao, production manager at Taiwan's CMC Entertainment Group, which invested $10 million in the project. The movie's other owners include state-run China Film Group, South Korea's Showbox Entertainment and Japan's Avex Entertainment Corp.

Liao said ``it's safe to assume'' CMC will recover its investment through the sale of screening rights. China Film and Showbox couldn't be reached for comment.

``Red Cliff'' will be edited into a 2 1/2-hour version for screening in Europe later this year. It will be shown in two parts for Asian audiences: the first is scheduled for Asia-wide release on July 10, the second is planned for late January. Producers are in talks with potential U.S. distributors, said Chang.

Loan Recovery

Standard Chartered Plc, which lent money against the film's earnings outside Asia, said the London-based bank is confident of recovering the loan soon, judging by distributor demand for the film in Europe. It won't disclose the financing terms, only that the loan was the biggest of its kind approved by the bank.

``We have had a good experience with this film,'' said Lee Beasley, director of creative industries at Standard Chartered, in an interview. ``It shows prospects for film financing in Asia, even for big-budget movies, are very promising.''

Movies in Asia have average budgets of $10 million or less, and are usually funded by studios and wealthy individuals. The opening of the mainland Chinese market has given Asian producers another incentive to boost spending and encouraged banks to finance projects. Hong Kong and India are among the biggest movie- production hubs outside the U.S.

India produces more than 1,000 films a year; Hong Kong made 50 movies in 2007, while Hollywood made about 300 pictures last year, industry figures showed.

For the film, Woo hired Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, winner of the best-actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival; production designer Tim Yip, who worked on Academy Award winner ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon;'' and extras from the People's Liberation Army for the battle scene. Filming began in April 2007 and was plagued by problems from the start, culminating in the death of a Chinese stuntman on the set last month.

The death ``was the biggest regret of my career,'' said Woo at a press conference in Hong Kong on June 30. Woo, 62, said ``Red Cliff'' is his most important work to date and will test the appeal of a foreign-language film on a Chinese story outside Asia.

``To Asia, this is a historical epic,'' said Chang. ``To audiences outside Asia, they expect a big John Woo action film.''

Chang said the film will ``appeal to both groups.''

[GeneChing]

I really want to see this on the big screen but that might be tough for a while here in the states...

Full House for "Red Cliff" on Opening Day
2008-07-10 13:46:27

The costliest Chinese film seems to have the potential to be the most profitable as well. John Woo's "Red Cliff" opened on Thursday, attracting a full house at almost every theater screening the film.

Theaters in Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and many other cities reported unusually high attendance for the opening of the historical epic shortly after midnight on Thursday, Sohu.com reports.

Despite its grand premiere last week, it was the first time the two-hour and 20-minute film was screened in its entirety.

An audience member in Beijing told Sohu that she heard that John Woo had spent five years making "Red Cliff," which aroused her curiosity in the film.

Moviegoers were also impressed by the film's magnificence, Sohu says. "Red Cliff" is based on a well-known historical battle in 208 AD in which thousands of ships were burnt. The biggest scenes involved 2,000 actors and crew members, and around 1,300 special effects are used, an earlier report on Shanghai Daily says.

A few viewers on Thursday voiced disappointments that the lines spoken by these ancient characters were too modern, but Sohu found in a survey that generally speaking, the audiences gave the film a thumbs-up.

The lengthy film also left some fans feeling exhausted, yet John Woo has done his best to cut it short. The current release is just half of the "Red Cliff" series. Woo said before that it's very difficult to condense the story into two hours so he split it into two parts to allow more room for character development.

The second part is set for release in Asia in December, when Western audience will also get to see a single, condensed release.

The US$70 million "Red Cliff" is said to be the most expensive Chinese-language film ever made. Its star-heavy cast spans talents from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, including Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Lin Chi-ling, Zhao Wei and Hu Jun.

[doug maverick]

i heard they were going to do a soft opening of it here in the states and if it does well it will be wide released.

[GeneChing]

"Red Cliff" declares opening victory in Asian market
www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-12 10:39:02

BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) -- "Red Cliff", reportedly Asia's most expensive ever film, gained 27 million yuan (3.91 million U.S. dollars) of box office on its first-day release, setting the highest record among homemade movies.

The first of this two-part epic motion, adapted from China's classic historic fiction Romance of the Three Kingdoms, hit cinemas in Asia on July 10.

Its first-day box office was the highest among all movies released in the mainland so far this year and higher than last year's Hollywood blockbuster Transformers whose first-day box office was 22.41 million yuan.

Weng Li, spokesman of the China Film Group Corporation, the movie's main investor, said that the group was confident of its box office later on.

"The romantic epic fits in the taste of audience of all ages and the upcoming summer vacation will bring more people to the cinema. I believe more records will be set," he said.

In its first day release, the movie also gained 17 million New Taiwan dollars in Taiwan and 2 million HK dollars in Hong Kong.

The movie directed by Hollywood-based Hong Kong director John Woo has several leading Asian stars in its cast, including award-winning Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, Taiwan supermodel Lin Chi-ling, Taiwanese-Japanese heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro and mainland's leading actor Zhang Fengyi.

It attracted public attention for the 80-million-US-dollar investment, said to be the most expensive of all Asian movies.

The movie revolves around the epic Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD in China's Three Kingdoms period. It was a famous military case of the weak winning the strong, in which a 50,000-strong allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeated the powerful 800,000 troops of the northern warlord Cao Cao.

The biggest scenes in the movie involved 2,000 actors and crew, and a large amount of special effects were used, according to earlier media reports.

The movie's second episode is set to be released in December. By then, a condensed version covering both episodes will also be released outside of Asia.

108 million yuan - what an auspicious number...

"Red Cliff" Breaks Opening-Weekend Box Office Record
2008-07-16 13:18:16

John Woo's historical epic "Red Cliff," reportedly the most expensive film ever made in Asia, has earned 108 million yuan (US$15.78 million) in the Chinese mainland since its cinema debut on Thursday.

The opening weekend box office takings are a record for a Chinese film, compared to other domestic blockbusters such as Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower"(96 million yuan) and Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

"Red Cliff" beat the Dreamworks production, "Kung Fu Panda," which earned about 50 million yuan in ticket sales on the opening weekend.

It also opened strongly in Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia, including South Korea and Singapore, taking in a total of 25 million U.S. dollars across Asia.

Hollywood blockbuster "Transformers" took five days to break the 100 million yuan mark in the Chinese mainland last year.

"Red Cliff" revolves around the epic Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, a decisive battle, immediately prior to China's Three Kingdoms period, between allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the numerically superior forces of the warlord Cao Cao.

Tony Leung, Lin Chi-ling and Takeshi Kaneshiro are among the film's A-list cast.

[doug maverick]

looks like john woo is back. can't wait to see this. i know i'll be tempted to pick up a chinatown bootleg but i'm going to wait to it hits theaters.

[doug maverick]

alright so turns out i don't have to wait for it to hit ny theaters and i don't have to buy a bootleg. got a chance to see a private screening at a really nice house in the hamptons belonging to(actually i don't know whose house it was.lol)anways so let me just say that john woo must be stinking up santa monica(where lion rock ent is based) cause he's the sh!t. he's got his swag back with this film he showed all those chinese filmmakers how to make a period film, it had action/comedy/drama and ofcourse the patented tony leung sex scene(i swear he puts that in his contract) the first 18 minutes is filled with lots of action although the action was directed buy corey yuen(we all know how i feel about his chorey) dion lam was the actual choreagrapher and it was good. i'm so hyped for the second part no wonder it's breaking all the records in china. you guys are going to be very happy with this film.

[Shaolinlueb]

nice i cant wait for it!

[Zenshiite]

Maybe it'll do the film festival rounds and I can catch it. I really want to see this.

Still need to see Mongol.

[doug maverick]

well you might as well wait to december when its set to hit american theaters. my only problem is that the american version will combine part one and two. so i'm wondering how much is going to get cut out.

[SPJ]

I bought the dvd for the first episode (half).

overall, it is good.

the fighting is a bit long or just about the whole movie.

it has 2 land battles.

1. Liu bei was retreated, the shiny shields blinded the horses.--

2. Liu and Sun or zhu ge liang and zhou yu together against the elite army of cao cao.

--

a turtle or ba gua formation

--

can't wait to see the other half.

which is about the water battle. or war on the river.

[SPJ]

1. Zhao zi long using the long spear and rode the white horse--

2. Zhang Fei was with great force and loud voice. He may grab weapons from the enemy and defeat several people at the same time with empty hands.

3. Guan Yu using the da dao.

4. Liu Bei stringing the straws to make a shoe.

5. Cao Cao loves Zhou Yu's wife xiao qiao.

--

these are all accurate.

growing up hearing tales from story tellers in front of the temple, on the radio, reading all the novels.

the romance of the three kingdoms.

I think I like the stories too much.

and of course, would like the movie a lot.

[SimonM]

Sanguo Yanyi is such a rich and varied story. I was not raised on a diet of it and yet, discovering the novel at the age of 25 it has become one of my favorite stories.

[GeneChing]

John Woo is back on his game with Red Cliff. I loved it. I can hardly wait for part 2.