The Promise

When I saw the trailer for The Promise, it didn't look too impressive to me, but I noted that it is a Chen Kaige film, and Chen Kaige is reason enough to watch a film that might not look so good.

So I watched The Promise (or Mo Gik), and I must say that it is not often I watch a film with my jaw down most of the time in reaction to the visual majesty of the film.

When I watch movies, the first thing I look out for are the new things to see, more so than the stories. That's the whole point of the cinema, right? To use our eyes. The Promise delivers full marks on that front, with precise and unique cinematography that captures and compliments the breathless and mystical elements of the film in dazzling colors and sweeping scenery.

At this juncture I must note that The Promise is shot digitally, and employs a wide range of digital effects to create the semi-fantasy world of fluorescent colors and out of this world settings. One of the common complaints about this film is that the CGI, as well as the set decoration in this film looks highly amateurish despite it's grand setting. I have to agree that it's not the finest looking visual effects in the world, but I'm proud of it nonetheless. For a budget 4 times less than movies like Star Wars and King Kong (despite it being the most expensive film ever made in China), the effects are pretty darn good to see. Watch it in context, and it'll be the finest thing that China has ever seen.

As for the acting, I can't say too much about it. A Korean and and a Japanese take up two of the four lead roles, and both of them speak mandarin well enough to pass off as Chinese characters. Cecilia Chung dazzles the screen not only with her beauty, but simple gestures of seduction that would capture any man's attention in an instant. Nicholas Tse, whom I personally consider as someone who cannot act for nuts, manages to act a little bit this time as the cunning Duke.

Action, romance, and dialogue mesh together happily and consistently throughout the film, accompanied by the epic score by Klaus Badelt.

A dazzling experience in the cinema. The film is not without it's flaws, with plot holes occurring every now and then, and moments of extreme cliché. But before these moments shame the film, the next moment of visual cuts in and saves the day.

8/10

I've seen the movie and I liked it very much, even more than "Hero" or "Crouching tiger, hidden dragon" (and they were excellent!). The movie is colorful, the actors are good, the plot is magical and captivating, lots of battle scenes and martial arts.

The one thing that you should keep in mind when you decide to go and watch it, however, is that there's one important difference between "Promise" and "Tiger/Dragon", for example. While the latter was mainly about the martial arts, magical swords and true warriors searching for their destiny and characters' relationship remained peacefully in the background, "the Promise", despite its many combat scenes and stuff like this, is a love story, a fairy tale. Which makes it sort of similar to the "House of flying daggers".

The flaws? Well, I suppose there're some, because nothing is perfect. But, personally, I didn't notice any.

It's a beautiful love story and it's worth watching. There's a right time for everything and there are not many bad movies....

Enjoy it!

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.

I had been forced to see a huge hypes bombing all over the places in Beijing, and according to all the news reports there were no any direct critical voices. And after I did watch the movie, it turned to be a huge disappointment and I doubt if the criticism has been banned by media for commercial and Golden Awards reasons?

YES, it is a BAD film. Story is simple and seems wanted to tell something but you may still have to have a script or novel in details on-hand to be able to understand what the earth the director Chen wants to talk about through such dull story(or I doubt if he have the ability to tell in this movie). As the casting stars are mainly not native Mandarin speakers (apart from Liu Ye)and have sort of facetious accent,It is rather making native Mandarin speakers such as me feel upset.It is not an important consideration for non-Chinese speaker but I got to let everybody aware that-- The dialogues in the film is rather awkward and afflictive and It is a film that can be ruined by the accents indeed.

And in terms of CG part, it is really so-so compared with the pre-declaration that it was gonna be "a Chinese Lord of the rings" movie--Anyhow I don't think anybody will dare to allege that again after watching it. For instance, I still felt like watching a PC-game effects at the most costly scene when the thousands of uruses rushing in the valley at the start of the film.

And in terms of martial art part, it is just another application of "Gravity Zero" technics popularised by Hong Kong movie industry.

As a director had ever made masterpieces such as "The Emperor and the Assassin" and "Farewell, My Concubine", Chen Kaige fails to make another remarkable movie ( comparably big investment is exceptional).

The Promise has delivered the message to the audience, ie, live life full , bravery to pursuit our love, and our ability to change our fate by choice.

The west have "superman" and "fantastic four". No one commented the movies are illogical. This promise has combined Chinese myth and faith. In such contact, it is unkind to comment the abilities of the slave to fly, run and step into another realm of time and life. Do not apply double standard in evaluating and judging the movie with our limited perspectives. The important thing is the message the movie trying to express to the audience.

The movie captured many beautiful moment, from flowers to sky, from facial expression to non verbal language.

The conversation among the cast are remarkable. It made us think of our own life. The Chinese language fully exploited to deliver the complexity of ideas and thought.

The concubine has made the choice to love the general. She even decided to pour her heart out to the "slave". At the end, she is the one decided to ignore the warning of the "goddess".

A movie worth watching again!