Red Cliff (1)赤壁





Introduction:

The Battle of the Red Cliff (1), a Chinese epic movie based on the battle that occurred in a place called Red Cliff, and events that took place during the Han Dynasty, prior to the period of the Three Kingdom in ancient China. This is 2 part epic movie with estimated budget of US$80 million, is the most expensive Asian financed film to date.

Setback in the days of corrupt officials and a powerless King, the ambitious and cunning Prime minister Cao Cao is set to capture the whole of China, using it to overthrown the King and gain ultimate power for himself. However, he faced tremendous resistance from 2 rebel groups: group lead by the King's uncle Liu Bei, the Southerners lead by Sun Quan. These two groups saw through the scheming plot of Cao Cao to seize power of the State, put up a very strong fight. First, Cao Cao's army advanced towards South to capture and wiped out Liu Bei's force. Liu Bei and his team of highly skilled and brave generals put up a strong defense and excellent use of war strategy to hold off Cao Cao's troops and allow ample time for the peasants to escape. But they are not able to restrain the out-numbered enemy's troops for long and lost majority of their army and the battle. Being defeated, they sought alliance with the one of the Lords of the South, Sun Quan. Soon, the 2 teams start strategiesing how to win and outnumbered enemy's forces.

The movie is based on the harshness of that era, filled with poverty, starvation, war and death. The bonding of the totally different groups of allies and their display of impressive military strategy, gives the world a real eye opener into ancient Chinese battles and culture.

Communication Analysis:

Firstly, i will like to say that coming from a person who has no prior knowledge of the Romance of the three Kingdoms novel, i find this movie easy to comprehend. You do not need to have prior knowledge to understand what is going on in the film. Kudos to John Woo for another spectacular film!!!!!

The way the fighting scenes were done was epic in a way that I would say it is one of the best Chinese war films I have seen. The movie is filled with war violence, death and slaughter. The director uses motion effects on certain fighting scenes, especially when the parts where cavalry comes in. The scene would slow down, and the sound would be magnified loudly so that one could only hear the stomping of the horses hooves, and see the horses charging slowly with the mounted soldiers brandishing their lances or swords. This effect grabs the audience’s attention and is instrumentally vital to add to the dramatic effect of the battle scenes.

The usage of non-verbal communication in this movie was very well exploited, especially at the start where the movie introduced the villain, CaoCao. Firstly, the music crescendo and started to play foreboding tone, as if to warn that something formidable was about to happen. Next, the scene features from afar the rattling sound of jade pendants and firm footsteps, but the face of the character was not revealed. Then all of a sudden, all the generals, troops and court officials present started to look fearful and immediately knelt down in respect. From these above non verbal ques, i could roughly guess the antagonist is appearing, and that the relationship between this character and the rest of the his subordinates is one that is covered with lots of trepidation.

As with any typical Chinese war film, this show is filled with dramatic and epic war music. The loud banging of the war drums adds to the war beat during the fighting scenes and the music also makes the marching of the troops impressive in typical Chinese style. Not only does the music creates apprehension and excitement for the fighting scenes, it also at certain scene brings out the beauty and the serenity of the surrounding natural environment untainted by bloodshed. This contradiction could only be accentuated by the appropriate use of different styles of music. Overall, i think the music did a great job keeping the tempo of this highly choreographed movie intact and establishes the decorum of the movie.

Overall, I would say that if you are a person who likes military stuff or is into history, this movie is the thing for you. It also gives us a glimpse of Chinese history… that Chinese people were a brave, tough and battle-hardened people that could survive. The movie is a theme of skillful military strategy and how a side with not as many soldiers but are loyal are able to triumph at the end. This goes to show that in order to win a war, it is critical to have a good strategist and loyal generals. However, i feel that it is the best to avoid a war and resolve differences instead of clashing head on in a battle....