The Promise Dvd Review

From most of the reviews ive read this movie was blasted by critics even though it was an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language movie. Ill admit it wasnt the be all to end all but I did enjoy it quite a bit. A lot of people are comparing it against Hero, Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers but I look at it as more of a fantasy type of movie like Legend of Zu. Its a totally fictional land and time period where they just happen to speak Chinese. How convienent. Kind of like how on Tatooine and Hoth they speak English.

The movie is directed by Kaige Chen and stars Dong-Kung Jang as the slave, the always awesome Hiroyuki Sanada as General Guangming, Cecilia Cheung as the Princess and Nicholas Tse as the great prick baddie Wuhuan.

The story is about the princess as a little girl makes a promise with an Enchantress to have beauty and admiration by men for the rest of her life but to never be with the man she loves due to some unfortunate circumstance or thing happens to him. First off this is a jacked up deal. The little girl is like 7 or 8 years old and she has to make that kind of decision? What little kid wouldnt say yeah make me pretty cuz i dont care if i cant be in love.

Fast forward about 20 years and there is a battle between this kingdom and a barbarian kingdom intent on destroying them. The barbarians look ridiculous with big clubs, axes and other over exaggerated weapons. This General comes up with a great idea to unleash the slaves so they can take the brunt of the first attack and then the soldiers will come in after them. The barbarians release a horde of Buffalo and the main slave character of the movie Kunlun leads the Buffalo in a circle back to the Barbarians. Then the soldiers come in and the General finishes them off himself with this crazy looks Bolo weapon. The whole thing is kind a comical with the slave running about 50 miles an hour and the Buffalo following right behind. A lot of the effects and things they do are in the vein of Kung Fu Hustle. Some of the effects are spotty but its never to the point where it takes me out of the movie. It is a fantasy world so they might have different rules of gravity than we mere earthlings. Not to get to in depth or spoilish but the slave saves the girl from being killed by her husband and she thinks it is the General who saves her. There is a love triangle started between the three and then the bad guy captures her and takes over after the king dies. Then the minion of the baddie teaches the slave how to run faster than time. It sounds more confusing than what it really is. It was paced pretty well and was never boring. The final climax and conclusion wraps up the story satisfactory. If you like these type of fantasy movies then i definitely recommend checking it out when it hits dvd in a few months. I give it a solid 7.5
Heres the trailer