Human stories amid a sweep of history

AFTER a five-year absence, John Woo returns to the big screen with The Crossing (Part One), the first installment of a two-part war-and-romance epic spanning several decades of modern Chinese history.

In his trademark directing style, bullets fly and body counts rise; meanwhile, snowflakes drift to the ground and doves hover overhead as major characters struggle to stay alive and reunite with loved ones.

Woo devotees might detect a link to his previous two-part historical epic Red Cliff (2008), but the narrative in his latest film is frustratingly uneven as a series of life-changing events are depicted on a grand scale. Bringing The Crossing to the big screen was also a struggle for Woo, who first announced plans to make the movie at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.