Part I of The Battle of Red Cliff is coming out in theatres here on Wednesday, the culmination of, from what I hear, has been the most extended and expensive game of grab-ass in Chinese movie history. When I first went to see the set with the American special effects team back in December of 2006, we took a van down to Yi Xian, three hours south of Beijing, to look at three of the biggest projects requiring special effects. One was a shallow rocky creek, which the construction department proposed to dig out to a wide rushing river, over which the special effects crew would build a bridge which was supposed to shake and collapse, and be able to reset for several takes. Another was a full village on the side of a hill by a river which would be required to burn over and over again. Last was two wooden ships which, in addition to listing mechanically side to side, were also required to burn over and over again. We didn't discuss the bridge effect very much that day be...