30-second review: rather than the shortened international version, if you watched the original chinese release of red cliff, then you saw john woo run the first half of this relay race, and then pass the baton to this film to bring it across the finish line for a huge win... and then this film immediately dropped the baton, fell, picked it back up, fell again, and finally limped its way across the finish line. it's almost an antithesis of the first movie, where the all the plot points depend on characters being more stupid than the other, rather than trying to see who's cleverer. rather than playing it as a restrained drama, woo allows many of the character to go full bore into broad comedy, and the actual heartfelt parts quickly go overboard to become so melodramatic that i literally burst out laughing during the dramatic conclusion. it's a film that pushes the fantasy-action tone of the first part into pure melodrama, dependent on plot conveniences and audience manipulation. closer to dragon blade than to hero, this was a huge disappointment for me. ------------------------------------------------------- cinephiles read on... the film picks up with a series of scenes that immediately tested me, as i hate the trope of women dressing as men and looking exactly like a woman, just in man's clothing, and everyone just pretends that like superman, those glasses have suddenly made her unrecognizable. it's such lazy writing, and it immediately takes me out of the film. and that's what we have here as our anachronistic beautiful princess warrior character indulges in a storyline that pushes her from borderline "mary sue" into full-blown "this entire war would've failed if not for her". add to that that her storyline is dependent on her running into the dumbest military commander possible, and that the actors here only know how to play "dumb" with the biggest, broadest facial expressions, like they're entertaining children at a carnival. and there are suddenly multiple incredibly dumb characters in the film, whereas before the legendary heroes were successful and famous by virtue of being more cunning than each other. as a rule, if you need broad comedy to contrast with your heroes in order for them to look smart, then your writing needs an upgrade. the film becomes tonally jarring in other areas too, where it wants to show the horrors and ruthlessness of war through plague and loss of limbs, but it also wants to pretend that nothing bad happens to women in war. a major plot point hinges on a bad guy being obsessed with this beautiful women, and when she goes into camp to distract him, we're meant to believe he never touches her, instead content to delay his crucial battle plans for hours while she chats with him over tea. i'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. you want the bad guy to be obsessed with this woman, you need to show the real sacrifice she'd be making when she waltzes into his camp. that's the real horror of war. i was willing to give red cliff part one the benefit of doubt regarding its invented female protagonists, but it crosses over the line here from fantasy-action into just a kids movie portrayal of war. the war tactics used here also become more and more anachronistic, with woo having the han dynasty employing roman shield walls and using fire bombs about 800 years too early. there are no chariots, which were primarily what were used at the time, and the heroes pretty much become walking pin cushions and just keep right on going until they decide they're ready to die. it went from a sort of fun superhero portrayal in the first film, a la captain america, into a ridiculous superhero portrayal with no stakes, a la superman iv. it's the kind of film where no matter how grand the battle gets, there's going to be a nice moment where all the generals line up together like the girl power scene in avengers: endgame. and of course, an epic battle is no reason not to have the entire thing simply come down to to two guys with their swords at each other's necks at the same moment, because woo can't not have everything result in a standoff. all the ridiculousness and melodrama might have you thinking that the football game the soldiers are playing is just one more anachronism, but i looked it up and apparently "cuju" was real! there are a few events you might think were invented for the movie as well, like the way the heroes quickly stock up on arrows, but those stories are from the original tale as well. what's not from that is pretty much everything else. conveniences like a general being poisoned and suddenly no doctor being available, or soldiers stricken with typhoid suddenly getting up and fighting just because poppa said so, or most of the spying elements are all invented for the film. sometimes the actual story is referenced, but mostly it's changed so that the heroes are all portrayed as virtuous and wholesome while the villains are slow-witted and squander every advantage. it's a film as broad and dumb as the first one was smart and restrained. unfortunately, this is kind of an avengers: infinity war/endgame situation where you know the events in the first film are setup for what will be resolved in the second one. this second one is a huge step down for me, so now i can't really appreciate either. i looked up what was cut in the international version, and i don't think any of it will be missed. much of it are outright dumb side-plots. still, i don't even know if i can recommend watching that, since it's stuck with the same incredibly melodramatic ending. the whole thing left a really sour taste in my mouth. maybe fans of wuxia would like this, but it's too long to just "check your brain and enjoy", and too dumb to take seriously.