With John Woo's "Red Cliff" finally slated for a North-American BluRay release (both in the 2.5 hour International Edition AND in the 5.0 hour two-part Original Edition), collectors can start asking the general questions. Will this release be as good as the Hong-Kong BluRay releases? What extras will there be?
But first and foremost: will I be able to watch the whole film or have bits been censored?
When "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" was released in western countries, all bits of animal cruelty had been clipped out, mostly tripped stunt-horses falling in non-rehearsed ways (a practice forbidden in many countries since the Eighties, but still allowed in Asia). There is some discussion on BluRay forums if the English BluRay editions of "Red Cliff" have been censored in this respect too.
Unnecessary cruelty towards animals is not fun, at least not according to most normal humans. Then again most of us aren't exactly vegetarians, nor do we buy the more expensive "animal-friendly" meat from stores, so we are obviously somewhat at ease with it.
Which brings up the following question: do you agree with the practice of censoring animal cruelty out of Asian films? The censoring doesn't actually help the animals which were hurt in a movie, nor will it cause directors to stop hurting other animals in future movies.