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Perhaps tired of the Hollywood dregs he’s been offered, John Woo has turned to a traditional historical action-oriented epic in his native China. After all, all the cool kids were doing it: Ang Lee (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) and Zhang Yimou (“Hero”) have had their day with blockbuster period martial-arts epics. Woo’s “Red Cliff” is more of a war film, but it likewise makes ancient history spectacular and colorful.

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