I sat down last week to watch At the Movies, a movie review show on ABC. There’s a movie that I’ve been excited to see released on the silver screen in Australia, Red Cliff aka The Battle of Red Cliff aka Chi Bi. It is a Chinese epic film telling of the real Battle of Red Cliffs that occurred in 208AD. This battle has been the subject of many tales and re-telling in Chinese Literature, the most notable of which is Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

In 208AD, China was divided by rival factions and the Han Dynasty was crumbling. A perfect condition for war to break out especially when the Prime Minister and General Cao Cao decides to lead an army to fight two rival factions in the south headed by Liu Bei and Sun Quan. General Cao Cao’s cover story is that the two leaders are rebels plotting against the Emperor. In actual case, they just want peace and when the southern factions hear news of this, they form an alliance and make a final stand at Red Cliff on the banks of the Yangtze River.

This movie has all the makings to be an epic war movie and the potential to make The Battle for Minas Tirith look like a schoolyard scrap. Even the Chinese Army pitched in and provided the film makers with approximately 100,000 soldiers to play extras. I have trouble picturing so many people at one location! And with the news that Director John Woo was taking the story from the historical records, Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, rather than from romantic adaptations, my interest was piqued and I had a movie to look forward to watching.

That was until I heard David Stratton say,

“In Asia, the film was released in two parts, six months apart, with a total running time of 4½ hours. The decision to release only an ‘international’ cut-down version, combining the two original films and almost halving the running time is a terrible one – it’s akin to screening half of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.”

and my heart sunk lower when Margaret Pomeranz utter:

“I’m glad you say that because I felt, at two and a half hours, this film was interminable and it felt like it was missing out on something, like, character development. It was like the bare bones of something and, with the substance missing, it became really interminable for me.”

This doesn’t thrill me at all. And off I went to search out a cinema in Perth that would most likely screen Red Cliff in full. Yes, I’m more than willing to spend 4½ hours of my life watching a film. I spent more time watching The Lord of the Rings at the movies when it came out. I don’t even mind reading subtitles for that duration of time because I know how to read and really, reading one liners for 4½ hours isn’t taxing.

First stop was Luna Cinemas, a mecca for film buffs, particularly for movies that aren’t picked up by the mainstream. This was where I swallowed the bitter bill of disappointment. Luna Cinema is showing the editted version of Red Cliff. And to add salt to the wound, they had one crucial piece of information incorrect.

According to the Luna the movie’s language is in Cantonese. After all the trailers that I’ve seen, I would have to say that it is the most Mandarin sounding Cantonese that I’ve ever heard. At the very least, if you’re not going to go to additional lengths to show this movie in full, get the details right.

I will still go see the movie. I’ve been waiting for so long not to. I will also try to find the full version on DVD to watch.

Thanks Icon for totally screwing this one up and treating the movie going audience like a collective neural mass that lives to be in a comatose state as dictated by Hollywood offerings.

Update 7th, October, 2009: I have since seen the full version and the review is here.