The Promise

Director Chen Kaige's martial-arts epic is so beautiful it should almost 'œbe admiring itself in a mirror,' said Robert Denerstein in the Denver Rocky Mountain News. The most expensive film ever made in China, The Promise stuffs its frames full of amazing costumes and oodles of special effects, including a yak stampede. All this 'œoperatic grandeur' is admirable, but the story ultimately gets lost in the digital wizardry. Just like so many Hollywood productions, said Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post. In quiet moments, Chen convinces you to care about the love triangle forming among Princess Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung), Gen. Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada), and the general's slave, Kunlun (Jang Dong-Gun). But the special-effects extravaganzas tip the plot into the ridiculous, with far too many battle scenes, assassination attempts, and chase sequences piling on top of one another, 'œseemingly in random order.' Such a messy work is hardly worthy of the legendary director of Farewell, My Concubine, said Randy Myers in the Contra Costa, Calif., Times. It doesn't even measure up to other recent films in the genre, such as Hero or House of Flying Daggers. Somewhere in this bloated fantasia, a sweet tale of 'œlove and loyalty' lies buried. If only we could see it.

Rating: PG-13

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