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As one of the most resounding historical events in Chinese folklore, the Battle of Red Cliff has captured the imagination of generations, especially with its romanticised version – the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdom. For the millions of people that grew up with this all-too-familiar story, their wildest dream is about to come true with John Woo’s epic-scale and star-studded Red Cliff – the first of a two-part cinematic rendition.

With a budget of US$80m, Red Cliff has easily become the most expensive Chinese-language film ever made. Woo says, “The scale of production of Chinese historical epic dramas has seldom been comparable to Hollywood. In this movie, we have realistically recreated many ancient battlefields, images that have never been seen before in Chinese cinema.”

The story of Red Cliff is set in 208AD (the Han Dynasty), when China was divided into many warring states. Having asserted his control over the emperor, Prime Minister Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) waged wars on the surrounding kingdoms in an attempt to unify China – before finally installing himself as the new ruler.

The film focuses on the allied effort of the Kingdoms of Xu and Wu – masterminded by their respective army advisors, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) – to resist Cao’s invasion. It culminated in the Battle of Red Cliff, a legendary battle that was decided by wisdom and military tactics, not brute force.

“To me, the most captivating aspect of Romance is not the deified characters themselves, but the heroic attributes they demonstrate,” Woo explains. “I have therefore excluded many plotlines from Romance when making Red Cliff.”

In terms of character setting, one of the major deviations from the novel is Woo’s decision to make Zhou Yu the main protagonist, even though the character is famously portrayed as a tragic counterpart to Zhuge Liang’s iconic hero in the much-dramatized novel. Indeed, although he has retained some of the novel’s dramatic elements to satisfy its loyal readers, Woo has firmly based his film on the authoritative historical text, Records of Three Kingdoms.

Meanwhile, the director has little doubt his film can translate well into different cultures on top of its traditional Chinese allure. “With this movie, I aim to transcend the cultural and historical barrier between the East and the West. While foreign audience can witness something like an Eastern version of the Battle of Troy, Chinese audiences can also develop new insights into this familiar story.”

Edmund Lee

Dir John Woo, Not yet rated, 100 mins, Opens Thursday, July 10