RED CLIFF aka CHI BI

Year: 2008
USA: Magnet Releasing
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Wei Zhao, Jun Hu, Chiling Lin, Shido Nakamura, Yong You, Ba Sen Zha Bu, Yong Hou
Director: John Woo
Country: China
Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)
USA Rated: R for sequences of epic warfare
UK: 148 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong battle violence
USA Release Date: 20 November 2009 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 12 June 2009


Synopsis

Set in China, 208 AD

During the Han Dynasty when the country was divided into many warring states, an ambitious Prime Minister Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) hungry for supreme power over the whole of China, battled a kingdom in the west.

Lui Bei, the emperor's uncle and ruler of the kingdom of the west, formed an alliance with the kingdom of the south. Incensed by this outmanoeuvring, Cao Cao travels south to Red Cliff on the Yangtze river with an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers and two thousand ships.

The allies seem destined for defeat, outnumbered by this huge force, but their combined astuteness in battle tips the balance in their favour and eventually climaxes in a famous battle in Chinese history, where two thousand ships were burned, forever changing the course of China's history was changed forever.