Unlike traditional portrayal of heroes and villains of the battle of Red Cliff, which lacked depth and complexity, John Woo’s main characters are multi-faceted. For example, Cao Cao is not merely a villain with a white painted face. Woo’s Cao Cao does have a heart as hard as a stone as he sends the boats carrying the infected dead across the river to the camp of the heroes. And yet, he is genuinely empathetic to his own weary soldiers and he appreciates talents in others. He also has other fine qualities. Even though Cao Cao is full of courage and treachery at the same time, he is dominated by greed. His desire to possess Xiao Qiao, the wife of Zhou Yun, becomes his downfall. During a moment of tea appreciation, Xiao Qiao points out to Cao Cao that when a cup is filled too full, it overflows. Cao Cao’s ambition leads him to great ventures and heights and when it turns into excessive greed, he is left with nothing.
Red Cliff directed by John Woo, The Chinese Iliad
John Woo’s heroes, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yun, are larger than life because of their virtues and compassion for the laobai xing, the common man. When I ask John Woo who is his favorite character in Red Cliff, he replies, “Zhou Yu is my favorite character because he has a strong sense of values. He is upright, he believes in friendship, he is a family man, and he cares for those around him. I feel that movies today lack role models like him.” And indeed Zhou Yu is portrayed as the good overcoming evil during one of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history when seventy percent of the population was decimated.
John Woo has created in his characters an element of the Chinese tragic, which is different from the Western concept of the tragic. In the West, it is pride that causes the hero who is larger than life to fall. In the Chinese tradition, one of the tragic elements is the inherent conflict between love and duty. In Red Cliff, each heroic character whether man or woman is confronted by this conflict. This Chinese tragic element has added much conflict and tension to the movie. Otherwise, the movie is simply a painting of a dragon without eyes. And the eyes of John Woo’s dragon burn with passion and power.
