The over-the-top acting is forgivable, but the plot's incoherence is not.
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05/04/06
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The Promise (2005)
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Reviews Counted:77
Fresh:24
Rotten:53
Average Rating:5.1/10
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's fall from cinematic grace is writ large across his latest epic film, the failed martial-arts romantic drama The Promise.
05/04/06
The Promise has gorgeous visuals (in these movies, the cherry trees are always in bloom). But it's marred by stuttery storytelling and cruddy special effects.
05/04/06
The characters are written with needed depth, but Kaige can't make them pop off the screen in the same manner as his ballistic action sequences.
05/04/06
The Promise naturally expresses its mythic qualities through stunning visuals, breathtaking costuming, and a great deal of action, and it adds in Kaige's Ridley Scott-like fondness for vistas full of floating, drifting objects, from feathers to flo
05/04/06
I can't imagine Road Runner was what Chen had in mind for the most expensive movie ever made in China...
05/03/06
Top CriticA messy fairy tale that speaks to tainted ambition and destiny.
05/03/06
Like cinematic cotton candy, the picture is pleasant enough in the viewing but ultimately pretty wispy and ephemeral.
05/03/06
You can't help wondering how the same Fifth Gen filmmaker who made Yellow Earth and Life on a String could've fallen on such hard times, or justified such goofiness to himself.
05/02/06
Top CriticA heady blend of swordplay, somersaults, fairy-tale romance, and computer-generated whoosh.
05/02/06
Top CriticPilfers as many elements from House of Flying Daggers as copyrights will permit.
03/21/06
...has an excellent cast, wonderful visuals, and some great concepts -- all of which are severely compromised by special-effects scenes that are unintentionally risible.
02/27/06
That Chen is able to somewhat collect himself and the film toward the end just highlights how potentially great the film could have been.
01/16/06
It's a knockout that works on many levels.
01/05/06
Top CriticPoor CG effects reduce Chen Kaige's martial fantasy to cartoonishness.
01/03/06
Top CriticEven in fantasy, an internal logic must apply.
01/03/06
Top CriticThe story it tells, measured strictly in terms of emotional power and overall fun, is as moving and pleasurable as any matinee item by Ford, Hawks or Raoul Walsh.
01/03/06
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