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For his comeback Chinese-language epic movie Red Cliff, Hong Kong-turned-Hollywood director John Woo promises a visual spectacle of over 2,000 battleships, 800,000 soldiers and lots and lots of birds.
:“There will be more pigeons in this film,” he remarked, eliciting laughter from the international media gathered at the Cannes Film Festival. Woo was referring to his trademark scenes of flying pigeons, which he first used in the 1986 Hong Kong action flick :A Better Tomorrow:, starring Chow Yun Fatt and the late Leslie Cheung.
:During Monday’s press conference, his all-star cast — including Tony Leung, Lin Chiling, Zhang Fengyi, Zhao Wei, Chang Chen, Hu Jin, Song Jia and Tong Dawei — were relatively quiet. Noticeably absent was actor Takeshi Kaneshiro.
:But the Guangzhou-born director known worldwide for his work on :Broken Arrow:, :Face/Off :and :Mission: Impossible :2, gamely shared his excitement for his “dream project”.
:The movie is based on the Battle of Red Cliff, an infamous moment in Chinese history around 208. It is about a besieged and outnumbered army, which was immortalised in the classic Chinese novel :Romance of the Three Kingdoms:. Woo had been mulling over the idea of recreating the historical episode for the past 18 years, but had difficulties finding financiers and locations.
:Other roadblocks included casting. Earlier on, Chow and Ken Watanabe were slated to be in the movie but backed out — the former because of contract disputes and the latter because of objections to a Japanese actor playing a Chinese historical figure. Even Tony Leung had originally rejected a role.
:According to Woo, :Red Cliff :will be a way to show that China has “the ability to make huge movies like :Gladiator :or :Troy:”. With a US$80-million ($109-million) budget, it is the most expensive Chinese-language film ever made.
:He promised great battle scenes that will include 2,000 battleships being burned (supplied mostly by CG effects). “I want to make this the biggest action sequence ever,” said the 62-year-old director.
:But besides the slam-bang action (with swords and not guns, this time, he quipped), it’s also a story about the “true spirit of the Chinese. How they can win the war with a small number of people.”
:The movie will be released as a two-parter in Asia (the first opens in Singapore on July 10), but will be condensed into two hours for Western audiences who may not be used to a long subtitled movie, Woo said.
:When some of the stars did speak up, it was in praise of the director. “It’s great that John came back to shoot a very important piece of Chinese history,” said actress-singer Zhao Wei, 32, who is set to appear in the Raintree Pictures/China co-production :Painted Skin: in September with MediaCorp artiste Qi Yu Wu.
:Asked how it felt to be to be doing something “different” from Wong Kar Wai films, Leung pointed out he’s done the “costume/action thing” before. The 45-year-old added that it was great working again with Woo, with whom he previously did :Bullet in the Head :and :Hard Boiled:. “He should come back to China,” teased Leung. - TODAY/ra
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