'Red Cliff' has rock-solid opening in Asia

July 11, 2008 "Red Cliff" director John Woo got a local hero's welcome as his $80 million war epic opened with a bang across Asia. Touted as the most expensive Chinese-language movie ever made, "Red Cliff" is the first installment of a nearly four-hour, two-part film with an international cast that includes Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai ("Lust, Caution") and Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro ("The Warlords"). Shot in Mandarin, the film will need overseas ticket sales to satisfy a cast of international investors that includes Beijing's state-run China Film Group, Tokyo's Avex Group, Taipei's CMC Entertainment, Seoul's Showbox/Mediaplex, a few European distributors and Standard Chartered bank of the U.K.

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