The Promise (2005)

Man, this was just terrible...Asian movie makers these days think they can just throw together a cast of famous Asian actors, create some nice costumes and film some pretty scenery and people (especially Westerners) will call it "art" and flock to see it.

Honestly, it was plain awful. The special effects were pretty poor by today's standards (eg buffaloes and architecture). Characters did and said things that would have made little sense in any culture, language or time period in the history of mankind. When everyone in the cinema starts laughing out loud at the scenes that are supposed to be the most moving and touching, you know it must be crap! Asian films don't have to be like this to sell in Western markets. I did think the Japanese actor did a good job of speaking Mandarin. But overall, this was crap in anyone's language.

Fmovies: SPOILER: In 'The Promise' Cecilia Cheung plays Qingcheng, an orphan girl trying to survive. While on a battlefield, she tries to find scraps of food from the dead soldiers to bring back to her sick mother. While trying to escape the son of one of the generals, Qingcheng runs into the goddess Manshen (Hong Chen). Manshen informs Qingcheng that her mother is dead and strikes a deal with her. From this day forth Qingcheng will always live in luxury, but every man she falls in love with she will eventually lose. Qingcheng agrees to the bargain.

This movie is a combination of 'Hero' and 'Bulletproof Monk'. This is another Chinese legend epic that really fails as a movie. The moral of the story is hard to follow and takes forever to get its point across. On the plus side, it is a very visually stunning movie. It better be since it is the most expensive film in Chinese history with a budget of $35 million.

If you like 'Hero' and 'House of Flying Daggers', you might like this. Else, don't go see it.

SPOILER: OK, I was excited about seeing this movie in the theater on the big screen. I couldn't understand why I movie I thought was interesting, entertaining and beautiful with great acting performances was only receiving mediocre reviews. Then, I saw the movie. They totally re-edited the movie from the version I have on DVD! There were parts that were cut out that were important to the storyline. Like the part where the goddess shows General Guangming the King being killed my the master of the master of the Crimson armor. It wasn't in there at all. So when Kunlun went to save the King it didn't make sense because it wasn't established that the King was even in danger. And we were supposed to have seen the King killed and known Kunlun was going to do it as part of the theme of destiny being impossible to change. The entire movie's overall plot was based on destiny and that whole scene was a major part of establishing Kunlun's destiny to be with Qingcheung and the General's destiny to lose the armor and his status. There were more edits and changes made also. All of them important to the storyline. It wasn't even the same movie anymore! I'm extremely angry with the Director Chen Kaige for doing this to his work (or allowing it to be done). The China Version on DVD is way better and I'm sticking to that. The only thing that save it for me was the acting performances. I recommend seeing More Nic Tse Movies like Jade Goddess of Mercy or Moving Targets or New Police Story with Jakie Chan. And Everyone should see Tae Guk Gi, One of the best war movie I think, it's starring Jang Dong-goon.

The Promise fmovies. This movie is a beautiful fairytale. Everything worked,the music and scenery were top notch. The special effects were great. I must admit that the scene with the bulls running reminded me of the Lion King and that at that moment I thought this movie would be ridiculous. Instead it was the opposite. Most of the the themes are very serious ones like love,honor and betrayal. Only the ending was a bit confusing,but I think they did that to add some extra dimension or mystery to the story. I understand why many reviewers were a bit disappointed with this movie as they were expecting a martial arts movie. Although there is some martial arts this movie isn't about that. I enjoyed every minute of this movie and that is more than I can say about most of the Hollywood movies that came out this year (2006).

I think that this is a very good film, in spite of what many people on this board have said. It is, however, a very different kind of film altogether; it is almost a pure transposition of folk tale to film, with all of the magic and illogic and quirky plotting that such tales involve. Films that attempt to transpose/translate comic books to film do so best when they manage to get the 'tone' of the comic onto the screen and recreate as much as possible the graphic and narrative style of the comic. _The Promise_ does this effectively for folk-tale/myth.

I should probably add that I also like _Operetta Tanuki Goten_, by Suzuki Seijun, which is also working the same territory, albeit in a very different way. Chen's film also references highly formalistic genres like Beijing Opera, hence the acting styles are sometimes very far from the boring "realism" of most contemporary film. Viewers who complain of a lack of realism or believable emotion in films like these should try to climb Rapunzel's hair, and stick to "classic" fare like _Red Sorghum_ and _Farewell My Concubine_, which, brilliant though they are, work in the very familiar idiom of 'Art Film', and provide no difficulty for the kind of viewer who used to say, "I don't watch TV, but I really like _Masterpiece Theatre_".

Yimou and Kaige, with their latest films, are pushing Chinese film, and therefore international film, in new directions altogether, and part of that push is clearly an attempt to escape the heavy yoke of the 'European Art Film' tradition, the 'quirky-Indie-imitation-thereof' tradition, and the narrow confines of the various 'martial arts film' traditions as well. I say, good on them, and shame to those who won't celebrate creative development because it betrays their deeply conservative and traditionalist expectations. As to the suggestion that their recent work betrays a kind of "Hollywood-ification", all I can say is, "huh?"

Most comments for "The Promise", or "Wu Ji", on the IMDb forum are mainly negative. While it's obvious a film that could have been better, it still offers a stunning look that Chen Kaige has given it. It helps he was working with an excellent cinematographer, Peter Pau, who photographed this film with lovingly care. The result are exquisite images that might not mean a lot to the fans of films of this genre, but will delight others, like this viewer, who is not into this type of fantasy film. The music of Klaus Badelt plays well in the context of the movie. The film has some of the fabulous costumes of any film in recent memory.

It's easy to dismiss the film as a total failure. Other, more recent fare is cited as being much better, which could be true. But actually to experience the film as a gorgeous fantasy out of the talented director Chen Kaige's mind is worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, judging by the screening we attended recently, this film has not found an audience.

Dong-Kun-Jang is impressive as Kunlun. Hiroyuki Sanada also does good work as the General Quianming. The gorgeous Cecilia Cheung lends her beauty to her character, Princess Qingcheng.

The director will surely recover from this experience and concentrate on a more worthwhile story for his next venture. Chen Kaige deserves better and he will surely rise from the ashes like the magnificent phoenix he is.