It strikes me as quite odd that Hollywood has completely passed on a golden (or should I say Red) opportunity. The Beijing Olympics begin at the end of this week, and not only has John Woo's Red Cliff not been released in the USA, it isn't set for release until January, according to Merrick at AICN. The reason this strikes me as odd is that the closest to Chinese Cinema we have in US release through the end of the Olympics is...The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. What kind of parity is that?
THR posted a piece reporting Red Cliff opened in multiple Asian territiories doing four times the money Crouching Tiger did there in 2000 before it became the highest-grossing Chinese film in US box office history. Correct me if I'm wrong, but releasing subtitled prints stateside seems to be a huge profit opportunity lost. Guys like me who import Asian all-region DVDs will have had it for some time once it hits here in January 2009.
Wuxia (chinese "sword man") movies are considered a set few things by US distributors from what I can tell: 1) flushing money down the toilet (Iron Monkey), and 2) something the "sword nerds" out there will pay for later or 3) something the Weinsteins pick up and silently dump on DVD or store in a vault (Tai Chi Master and the Chinese Ghost Story series respectively, among many).
I suppose the best shots I have of seeing Red Cliff before January would be if Tim & Harry snag a print for Fantastic Fest in September or I shell out for an import DVD. I'm used to the standard operating procedure for Wuxia or "Asian Sword Dude" movies in general, even ones like Mongol that are nominated for Academy Awards. The pattern has been thus: release it outside of awards season and save space for "our" movies.
Wuxia cinema is a closet industry in the US even though they keep making more and more of them back East and they keep making money. When it comes down to it, there are some great Wuxia films and some terrible ones, and even though Red Cliff had its share of production trouble including Chow-Yun Fat ditching the show on the first day of filming, it's apparently excellent from all accounts.
On the one hand, I know I'll get to see it eventually, but it still angers me that availability is so delayed in this Age of Instant Gratification. This story from the dawn of the era of the Three Kingdoms isn't just some people on wires flying around and bouncing off rooftops talking about spirits of monkey gods, it's legitimate Chinese history. On top of that, it's John Woo's first Chinese flick since Hard Boiled, which came out when I was nine years old. I like these movies as a genre, but tons of people would gladly pay to see it over a seventh viewing of The Dark Knight with the added proximity of the Olympics.
What's in current release or coming out in the next three weeks that would "compete" with Red Cliff? This is a major, multinational cinematic event and the US has decided to just sit this one out.