The Hollywood epic has undergone numerous transformations over the past 30 years, primarily due to the evolution of technology, the fiscal challenges of painting grandiose themes on a large canvas, and, sad to say, the gradual stupefaction of popular culture. What makes Red Cliff Part 2 so thrilling — along with Part 1, which I wrote about in my previous column — is the way director John Woo has created an adult adventure whose visual and narrative pleasures can be embraced by viewers of all ages. Is this a sign of the times or just a lucky anomaly?

To talk about Red Cliff Part 2 as a separate entity from Part 1 does both films a disservice. Both parts can best be identified (and viewed) as a single four-and-a-half hour epic unfortunately cut in two to ensure maximum financial returns for its Chinese financiers. Even though many people would compare it (quite favourably) to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I feel a more apt comparison would be the masterful Hollywood epics of the early 1960s, films such as Anthony Mann’s The Fall of the Roman Empire or David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. Red Cliff’s relaxed narrative recalls to a time when human emotions and motivations were rooted in an old storytelling tradition and valued as a tool for unearthing the mysteries of creation and the human condition.

In the corporate era of moviemaking, the idea of presenting human emotion within “product” is quickly dismissed or belittled as antiquated. Narrative itself has come increasingly under attack — primarily, I believe, because of the way great narrative tends to encourage us to reflective subversively on the world around us, to question who we are and why we do things.

Arguably the most subversive element of Red Cliff Part 2 is Woo’s incorporation of Taoist precepts into its narrative, not to mention his complex analysis of the emotional and physical effects of warfare on the human world. Woo stages a beautiful ceremonial sequence in which the bodies of the victims of a typhoid epidemic that has ravaged both warring parties are disposed of. The respect and dignity with which Woo portrays this process is a beautiful thing, with none of false emotionalism that we are conditioned to accept as truth by corporate culture. The scene injects the film with a revolutionary fervor that the likes of Michael Bay could never achieve, no matter how long and hard he forces those transforming robots to battle each other.

I couldn’t be more pleased by the news that Red Cliff has done extremely strong business on the international market — and I take particular delight in the fact that its success is making many executives nervous in their ivory towers. Let them sweat!