Has been criticized by some reviewers for its low-tech special effects. Curiously, I found this technical transparency part of the film's enormous charm.
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05/25/06
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The Promise (2005)
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:11
Rotten:15
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: An incoherent plot and ridiculously obvious CGI effects doom this effort from the usually outstanding Chinese director Chen Kaige.
Synopsis: A sweeping martial arts epic in the mode of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, THE PROMISE is a crowd-pleasing stew of action, fairy tale conventions, wire-fu, and romance with undeniable... [More]
Starring: Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jang Dong-Kun
Director: Chen Kaige
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Reviews for The Promise
Top CriticChen Kaige clearly intended this Chinese fantasy-action spectacle to top Zhang Yimou's Hero, and I must admit that I prefer it to the earlier movie.
05/05/06
Top CriticThe Promise is too full of frenetic disconnection and arbitrary comings and goings to connect meaningfully with the hearts and minds of its audience.
05/05/06
Top CriticWith The Promise Chen Kaige has proven enough of a professional that he can make the product. But he remains too much of an artist not to scribble on his signature.
05/05/06
Top CriticLaden with a plot that could generously be called silly or, less forgivingly, stupid, it never achieves lift-off despite numerous scenes of warriors doing battle in midair.
05/05/06
Top CriticSimply in terms of its visual poetry, the exhilarating effects of image upon image of dazzling impossibility, The Promise is not to be missed.
05/05/06
Top Critic[The film elicits] the wide-eyed joy of seeing hundreds of soldiers ride through sets of colossal extravagance. And the sweet release of, briefly, suspending all holds on reality or even logic -- and surrendering to the joys of a fairy tale.
05/05/06
Top CriticThe Promise employs laughable computer effects and second-rate martial-arts fighting to tell the hard-to-figure story of a princess and her three lovers.
05/05/06
Top CriticAs is evident by the film's strong start and faltering finale, the trouble with any promise is failing to keep it.
05/05/06
Top CriticIn the midst of such unrelenting splendour, it's easy to nod gratefully -- and then to nod off.
05/05/06
Top CriticMuch of The Promise resembles a Cirque du Soleil extravaganza, which makes it tough to take seriously.
05/05/06
Top CriticThe Promise is one of those movies in which the individual sequences seem to surpass the overall achievement.
05/05/06
Top CriticOddly, The Promise -- which takes place hundreds, even thousands, of years ago, when art directors ruled the earth -- is flagrantly otherworldly but in a way that somehow weighs the picture down.
05/05/06
Top CriticIt suggests that talented Chinese directors are being led astray by the seductions of CGI and wirework fantasies.
05/05/06
Top CriticA mess of a movie.
05/05/06
Top CriticFans of newer Asian martial-arts movies will be satisfied with The Promise, especially because it contains the aerial wirework and swordplay expected of such movies. But the film is not as accomplished as the work of Ang Lee or Yimou Zhang.
05/04/06
Top CriticA lavish spectacle somewhere between grand opera and cartoon about a love triangle involving a general, a slave and a cursed princess.
05/04/06
Top CriticThe producers should have allocated part of their huge budget for a couple of script polishes.
05/04/06
Top CriticA princess with a curse, a case of mistaken identity and some of the worst special effects in a film by a world-class director.
05/04/06
Top CriticThe over-the-top acting is forgivable, but the plot's incoherence is not.
05/04/06
Top CriticLatest News for The Promise
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