Saturday Matinee: Red Cliff

“Red Cliff” (2008) is Chinese historical war film loosely based on the Battle of Red Cliffs (AD 208–209) and events at the end of the Han dynasty preceding the Three Kingdoms period in imperial China. The film was directed by John Woo, and stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Zhao Wei, Hu Jun, and Lin Chi-ling. There’s plenty of action-oriented costume epics from China but few come close to Red Cliff in terms of acting, screenplay, direction, special effects, and other criteria.

Saturday Matinee: League of Gods

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“League of Gods” (2016) is a Hong Kong/Chinese production directed by Koan Hui (co-screenwriter of The Blade) and starring Jet Li, Tony Leung, Fan Bingbing, Louis Koo, Huang Xiaoming, Angelababy, Wen Zhang, and Jacky Heung. It’s an adaptation of Fengshen Yanyi, a 16th century novel by Xu Zhonglin widely viewed as one of the great works of Chinese literature. The story is a mythologized retelling of the fall of the Shang dynasty combining elements of history, folklore and fantasy and has previously been adapted as a manga, anime, TV series and video game.