After 16 years of abysmal Hollywood offerings, Woo has returned to his homeland to direct the most expensive Asian film to date.

The first part of Woo's historical epic "Red Cliff" hit box offices last week, with the second half of the four-hour film scheduled to be released in early 2009.

Woo, a cool-handed master of bullet ballet triad films, ventures into new territory with the infamous Battle of Red Cliff tale, and though his debut in the genre is flawed, he manages to reign in the epic narrative with both action-packed choreography and humble reverence for his characters.

It's 208 AD, and the scheming Prime Minister Cao Cao is set to inherit the fading Han Empire. Having already conquered the North, Cao Cao sends his mighty army to the southlands of China, in an attempt to unify the entire kingdom under his control.

As Cao Cao's men march towards them, General Liu Bei's military strategist Zhuge Liang organizes an alliance with Sun Quan, a neighbouring warlord.

The two consolidate their armies, and Zhuge and Sun's Viceroy Zhou Yu lead the allied forces to a minor victory against Cao Cao's formidable cavalry, a precursor to the great battle still to be won at sea.

With the enemy's massive fleet on the opposite banks, Zhuge and Zhou cautiously plan their next military move against the powerful Cao Cao, in a battle of chess-like wit and cunning.

Woo's casting woes prior to production were almost as dramatic as the film itself, with a revolving door of actors moving in and out of roles in dizzying turns. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, turned down the role of Zhuge Liang (which was later taken up by Takeshi Kaneshiro), but came back to the production to replace Chow Yun-Fat as Zhou Yu, after Fat unexpectedly bowed out during the first week of shooting.

Kaneshiro is surprisingly good as the youthful and smart strategist, displaying a confidence of ease; a man whose strength is clearly more brains than brawn. His character plays counterpoint to Leung's Viceroy; soft wisdom partnered with hard experience. Kaneshiro's Zhuge is the sagacious strategist, while Zhou Yu is a man wizened by battle, the elder, more experienced of the two. Together, Zhuge and Zhou share duties as the brains of Liu Bei's military operations.Sadly, Tony Leung's performance is a little undercooked. Leung gives Zhou Yu a sensitive touch that seems misplaced, and he fails to anchor the commanding presence and brute smarts that his character demands. This is partly the fault of the script too, as it doesn't help that Lin Chi-ling has been superfluously cast as his partner, seemingly only there to lovingly bandage Leung's wounds and demonstrate that the Viceroy is as kind-hearted as he is fierce.

Woo's supporting cast provides a lively backdrop to the furrowed brows of military scheming. Some, like Lin Chi-ling, are merely cinematic window-dressing while others, Liu Bei's brothers-in-arms in particular, evoke a sense of martial heroism that is trademark Woo.

His themes of fraternal brotherhood from his celebrated earlier works (A Better Tomorrow, Hard-Boiled) shine in the context of warring ancient China; Woo manages to convey the age-old sentiments of chivalry and loyalty without appearing melodramatic, and the result is an emotionally-sweeping sense of brotherhood-in-battle bravado. Ba Sen Zha Bu delivers a particularly sharp performance as the fierce and legendary warrior, Guan Yu.

With a cost exceeding US$80 million, one would expect Woo's epic to have the rich polish of any big-budget production, but curiously, the film lacks an engaging aesthetic. "Red Cliff" has none of the colourfully-saturated imagery of Zhang Yi-mou's "Hero," nor the gritty bleak look of Peter Chan's "The Warlords." With the exception of the battle scenes, parts of "Red Cliff" even come out looking a little bland.

Most jarringly, Woo has chosen to employ some rather peculiar visual tropes, at times using wipes to transition between scenes, or quick tracking close-ups reminiscent of old kung fu films. It's as if, not being able to cinematically date the film back to 200 AD, Woo has settled for circa 1982.

Despite this, Woo has the advantage of one of the most entertaining and engrossing stories in Chinese history at his disposal. The Battle of Red Cliff is a dramatic tale of strategy and wit, and the film serves to fill in the complicated imaginary spaces of the book with vivid, awe-invoking visuals, harrowing battle sequences and stunning scenes of scale. The individual heroics of the characters in battle are depicted with clever and acrobatic choreography, and Woo makes military strategy look aesthetically breath-taking, especially in the film's big battle finale.

So, though Woo can be accused of throwing all his eggs in one basket, it's a pretty sturdy basket, and miraculously, it holds. Woo's ambitious epic ultimately prevails as a vivid and engaging big-screen spectacle of one of China's most compelling stories.