(The trailer is in English, but I watched the movie in Mandarin, with English subtitles. Always better that way.)

I’ve been wanting to watch this film since falling in love with South Korean actor Jang Dong Gun in this movie:

The Warrior's Way

Directed by Chen Kaige, The Promise is a 2005 Chinese epic fantasy film starring Jang Dong-gun (South Korea), Hiroyuki Sanada (Japan), Cecilia Cheung (Hong Kong) and Nicholas Tse (Hong Kong). The film is based on the wuxia (martial arts themed genre of literature) romanceThe Kunlun Slave, written during the Tang Dynasty. (Wiki)

I found it so strange but awesome that the director casted big Korean and Japanese stars into the lead roles, making them learn how to speak Mandarin just for the movie. Throughout his acting career, Jang Dong Gun had to learn two different languages for two roles: Japanese for his role in 2009: Lost Memories, and Mandarin for this movie. And you will probably know Hiroyuki Sanada as Ujio in The Last Samurai. 

For lack of a good briefer of the movie online, I’ll just come up with my own summary: The movie beings with a girl named Qingcheng who made a promise to an Enchantress to sacrifice love forever in exchange for wealth and adoration. Years later, a general and his slave, seeking to save the emperor, exchange identities and begin a confusion that leads everyone in circles throughout the rest of the movie. 

Well, I think I did a bad job of that. But anyway, graphics were amazing, possibly even surpassing that of Hero (Jet Li):

…which is quite an impressive feat, if you ask me. Although I believe the directors had totally different ideas of how the CGI was to be executed for either film, anyhow, so there wouldn’t really be any use comparing the two. Hero was more naturally beautiful while The Promise ethereal. Or hyperreal.  

The plot was criticized for its incoherence, and it’s admittedly not the most brilliant or profound one out there, but I felt Chen Kaige was being indulgent in telling a Chinese fairy tale of epic proportions, and I appreciated that. 

‘The Promise’ (known as Master of the Crimson Armor in America) was nominated for Golden Globes Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards.

And, one last question, for whose who’ve seen it: What happens to the enchantress?