The Promise
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Movie Reviews of The Promise
Movie Review: TRULY AVOID THE IMDB OPINIONS
Summary: 4 Stars
You need to realize, that this movie supersedes a lot of Chinese movies that apparently are far better. the IMDB crowd apparently thinks so at least. I can't compare this movie to legendary Chinese movies from the past because I haven't seen any. What I can say is that his movie is beautiful!!! the story is whimsical and very imaginative, it's hard to follow at times but then everything settles into place and some things are left cloudy but you can still enjoy the movie thoroughly. I recommend this movie to anyone that enjoys beautiful cinematic Chinese martial arts films. the CG has some parts that are hard to believe but they're bearable. I loved it and you might too. I haven't seen crouching tiger or house of flying daggers in years so I can't compare them to this, so I would recommend you not comparing them as well, each movie can stand on its own and it's not fair to compare movies like these. rent it and you'll like it. Movie Review: The Promise
Summary: 2 Stars
Being a big a fan of Asian cinema I had read quite a few negative to luke warm reviews of this film and thought I would give it a try.
The Story is not as bad as I was led to believe. I will not go into the story description as it has been covered. It is full of the virtues that I like so much in Asian films. Honor, sacrafice, and death.
The DVD I watched was the shorter version. It includes the deleted scenes which I watched and do not feel they added or subtracted a whole lot from the story. The fact that the Asian release included them makes me wonder why they were cut out. The bothersome issue with this DVD is the film defaults to the awful english over dubs. You have to manually go into the menu and choose Chinese (Mandarin), and then designate english sub titles.
I love Crouching Tiger, Hero and House of Flying Daggers. This movie is none of those. While it has some beautiful moments it does seem 'synthethic'. If it were the directors intent to create an abstract feel he suceeded.
The CGI is deplorable. I have no problem with the fantasy aspect but this looked almost animated. Maybe Lord of the Rings ruined it for all but if this was supposed to be the most expensive movie ever made in China they could have done better. An example: the over view of the palace is a model. Absolutely obvious. The flying fights made so famous on other films of the genre are not at all fluid here, but jerky and clumsy.
All in all I watched with intrest. I had no desire to turn it off. I may have even given it three stars but I did grade it against the likes of Hero and House of Flying Daggers which may be unfair. I recommend watching it if you like the aforementioned films. My opinion may not be yours.
Movie Review: Not For Everyone, but...
Summary: 5 Stars
The version I watched was the international version, which is 20 minutes longer than the U.S. version (which I don't intend to watch. What's the point?), so I can't comment on what might be left out in the shorter version. Personally, I thought "The Promise" was a brilliant film, worthy of multiple viewings. The cinematography is breathtaking, and I didn't feel that any of the CGI effects came off as cheesy.
However, this film is definately not for everyone. If you have a problem with wuxia films, then you are definately not going to like this. To appreciate the genre, one must accept that the characters are endowed with supernatural abilities. I've spoke to many people who don't like wuxia because they think they're unrealistic. Curiously, these same people have no problem with "The Matrix" and "Star Wars", which are equally unrealistic. And if you're just looking for eye candy and cool fight scenes, you may be equally disappointed. While "The Promise" has both eye candy and action in spades, it also contains a very complex plot. You really have to pay close attention, or you're going to get lost very quickly. I would reccomend you watch "Fearless" instead. That's a film that's not only great, but also quite easy to follow.
But if I had to choose between the two, I'd choose this one. I like films that really push the envelope and strive to succeed on every level. "The Promise" delivers. Highly recomended.
Movie Review: Visual Splendor Tattered Around the Edges
Summary: 3 Stars
In WU JI (`THE PROMISE') Kaige Chen has attempted to surpass the major Chinese epics of recent years with mixed results: there are moments of stunningly beautiful color and a story that is more human than the grand films by others, but the end product is too tampered with crude computer graphics and cheesy scenes to sustain the belief in fantasy that these films require.
The opening scene where Qingcheng (uncredited as a child actress) is confronted by the Goddess Manchen (Hong Chen) in the middle of an aqueous atmosphere and the 'promise' is contracted is as sensuously lovely as anything on film. But from there we plough through a story of fighting between barbarians and royalty, of love affairs between Princess Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung as the adult version) and the General Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada) with the addition of love interest from the General's slave Kunlun (Dong-Kun Jang), and of confrontations with mythic figures such as the Snow Wolf (Ye Liu) and the evil Wuhuan (Nicholas Tse), and the stories collide and ultimately get lost in the special effects.
Much can be said for the cinematic beauty of this film: equal disappointment can be voiced for the crude computer graphics and tacky mass scenes with weapons that look plastic Tonka toys. In the end it feels as though the director/writer was more interested in the competing ingredients of his colorful soup than in the work as a whole. Another problem with the DVD is the superimposed English dubbing that is completely out of sync with the story AND subtitles that conflict with the language of the film: to see this unfortunate mismanagement of effects, turn on the English dubbing simultaneously with the English subtitles and see how even the numbers being spoken aren't even close to being the same! A colorful film with some good-looking actors but for this viewer it just never gels. Grady Harp, December 06
Movie Review: Bad, just bad
Summary: 2 Stars
The only thing that I had heard from this movie were negative reviews. Some said it was average and some said it stunk. I decided to go into it with an open mind since there seems to be a lot of people that don't like movies like 'House of Flying Daggers' and even 'Fearless' if you can believe that!. Well unlike those masterpieces, director Chen Kaige will let you know right away not to take the movie seriously.
The story is about a slave who can literally run faster than the wind becomes a great General's slave and when the General is injured he gives his slave his famed Crimson Armor so that he can greet the king in his place. Now I wish I could go over every way that this movie fails but I will just gve a couple examples from the beginning. How the general could think that a slave could visit the King and actually fool him is beyond me. Then when he does show up to see the King, the villian is busy killing the King. Then the slave shows up, kills the King, saves a girl, and is off. So of course the General is in big trouble. Now the chemistry between all of the characters was fine but the script and the directing job are just horrible. I didn't feel any emotions AT ALL. Being a huge fan of Shaw Brothers sets and costumes for a long time, I like costume dramas, but I just thought they could have completely did away from teh special effects. It is not like it ruined the movie, because it was bad to begin with but it looks like I am playing Super Nintendo at times. I hate Nicholas Tse but I actually liked him in this movie, too bad he gave a wasted performance.
The version I saw is the one from Warner Home Video and I know there is a longer version out there but 102 minutes was enough for me.