Woo-ing audiences with Red Cliff

Many fans of Asian cinema may be familiar with the name John Woo. To a lesser extent the mainstream probably is more familiar with his films: Face/Off, Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Mission Impossible 2, and Paycheck. As can be seen by his run of American movies, he is a bit hit am miss.

But that is not really Woo’s fault. He is a Hong Kong director. Which means that he is used to low-budgets, complete control, large amounts of violence and action in the movie, and the time to make it his way (generally). Hard Target failed after the studio stepped in and re-edited his version. Broken Arrow suffered studio intervention as well. And Paycheck – well what can you do with Ben Affleck?

Given the problems he has faced it is no surprise that it’s been 6 years since Woo has had a film hit America. Not that he hasn’t made films. They are just huge hits in Asia. Where he can work his magic, like in The Killers.

The fiulm that’s coming to America? Red Cliffs.



The english sub-title trailer does not do justice to the ability of John Woo to tell a complex story, with thought and action combined.

I see this film as being much like Jet Li’s Hero. A great film that few in America have had the chance to see. A film that has been a mega-hit blockbuster in all of Asia. A film that is worth seeing, yes even with sub-titles.

Perhaps Quentin Tarrantino said it best

“I suppose Woo can direct action scenes. Sure, and I suppose Michelangelo can paint ceilings!”

It’s unknown how many theaters Red Cliffs will be released to in America. So far there will only one part of this 2 part film hitting our shores. But, I have no doubt that this will be a far better film than the tawdry revisioned remake of Land of the Lost (the trailers already make me wish I was seeing the television series instead), or yet another sequel/prequel of a film (though ther Terminator Salvation might just prove to be worth the money and time).

My thought is, take a chance. You may just wind up enjoying yourself – even if you don’t understand a word that is said.

**Oh, and keep an eye out for a few very differnt films from Woo in the near future. They might include: Mighty Mouse (yes even he is into cartoon conversion movies - hopefully better than Underdog), a remake of Papillon (which would be very interesting to see from his point of view), and Rainbow Six (Yes, another video game made into a movie - though this one has the action that fits perfect with Woo).

Frenchman disses 24 and American movies

Well here is a strange thought. A French man is complaining about America. Your shock must be intense.

To be more exact the complaint against America is about the movie studio, 20th Century Fox I believe, which helped to fund and distribute the movie Babylon A.D. The French man is Mathieu Kassovitz. If you are wondering who he is, you are from anywhere but France. He is a Frenchman that is an accomplished actor; in America that means he was in films no one except a handful of film critics have ever seen. And they were paid to watch them.

Mathieu Kassovitz is the director of the new Vin Diesel film, Babylon A.D. and his complaint is that the film sucks. He stated this in an interview as the film is released.

But how bad could it be? Remember this is a director that is French. The land that brought Jean Reno and The Professional. With a movie based on a top French novel. With 2 top A-list actors, 1 of which is a huge international star - Michelle Yeoh. All my hopes of this being a good film were quickly dashed when I heard this though.

“It's pure violence and stupidity," he admits. "The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters... instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24.”

Now pure violence is exactly what I was hoping for. If I want to help kids get educated then I would send them to school. If I want to study metaphysics I go to a philosophy course in college. And 24 is far more popular and widely viewed, than every French television program – none of which I have never heard of.

So in a single statement I was told that this director had hoped to make a long (the film was mercifully cut down to 93 minutes by the movie studio) slow paced wordy French version (in English) of say Wuthering Heights. And for some reason he thought that this would be popular, or even seen, by U.S. audiences.

John Woo gets it. Timur Bekmambetov got it. Guillermo del Toro usually gets it. But when it comes to French directors it just seems that there are more misses than hits. They barely understand the thrill Americans like in a film, and several remakes of their films have done fantastically here in America, done by non-French directors and actors. Unless you think the adaptation of Hitman last year was anything but a complete bore and seemingly directed by someone who has never played a videogame in his life. But I do give credit to Luc Besson (Fifth Element and The Professional).

Now I don’t mean that I feel this way about all the French. In fact there are several French actors I like. There is Jean Reno as I mentioned. Great in The Professional, good in Ronin, he was even good in Mission Impossible. Solid actor.

And there was Julie Delpy in Killing Zoe – alright you may not have seen that film but you should.

And?? Gerard Depardieu? I wouldn’t count him but I’m out of French actors. I’m sure there must be more, right?

Ok, so the French don’t get it in general. They may do outstandingly well in France, but I’m not aware of them doing well anywhere else.

Still I did have hopes for this movie. But when this director comes out and trashes his film because it’s not art house enough, well you just have to hope that the movie studio really reworked it. I have no doubt that the director’s cut will do well in France. And I expect that Vin Diesel will get initial groups of fans into the film and sell the DVD. But beyond that I have mixed thoughts.

So far I see that Yahoo shows the film having grabbed $12 million over the holiday weekend. That loses to Tropic Thunder but keeps it at 2nd place. Unless you factor in the number of theaters it was in. Because then it loses to The Dark Knight, Traitor, and The House Bunny. It lost to The House Bunny in its second week.

I haven’t had the chance to see the film yet. I was going to see it this week. But after the comments of Kassovitz I’ll push it back a bit. Traitor is more reliable I’m sure and I like Don Cheadle.

But if you have seen the film I’d love to know who was right. The director’s version or the movie studio’s? Just consider the movie you saw, double the time, imagine yourself in a classroom for the extra time, and kill the action.

You tell me.