John Woo Rocks! (Link to our interview for JoBlo)

I know there are those of you out there who prefer not to read your movies. And I know it can be confusing to try to differentiate characters with names like Zhou Yu and Zhao Yun. But trust me when I say, it's worth it for Red Cliff. Really, really worth it. Now, I'm not allowed to review the film until it's release in November, but I think you get the idea.



The battle of Red Cliff took place in 208 C.E. (Common Era. I have issues with Anno Domini.) The story is as familiar to Eastern audiences as the battle of Troy is to Western ones. Now, I know this may seem like a stretch for a geek girl's blog. But I play World of Warcraft. I love battle epics. (I'm also a bit of a history geek. Nothing after 1600 though. Modern history bores me and makes me think about things like flushing toilets and rent increases.) Red Cliff is nothing if not epic. And since that is as far as I can go without actually reviewing the film, I will now virtually shut the hell up.



Anyway, I just got a chance to interview director John Woo for JoBlo. Check out our interview here. He gives up the details on film making in China, cutting it down from the five hour version, and the expansion of the female roles. I told him how much I appreciated that, and he laughed. "In the five hour version, there is a little more story to tell. And since you like [the] princess role in it, she got more scene[s] in the Asian version." Hunting down the five hour version right this very moment.