Genre:
Action / Drama / Fantasy (more)
Plot Outline: Empowered by the love of a slave (Dong-kun), a royal concubine (Cheung) is given the chance to make an extraordinary decision. (more) (view trailer)
User Comments:
in the midst of carnage on a battlefield, a desperately hungry girl makes a Faustian bargain with a Chinese goddess and lives lavishly thereafter to regret it
(more)
User Rating:
 
5.1/10 (1,232 votes)
Also Known As:
Mo gik (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
The Promise (International: English title)
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for stylized violence and martial arts action, and some sexual content.
Runtime:
USA:102 min (cut version) / China:128 min
Country:
China / Hong Kong / Japan / South Korea
Language:
Mandarin
Color:
Color
Sound Mix:
DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
Certification:
Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) / Taiwan:PG-12 / Singapore:PG (edited version) / France:U / Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) / USA:PG-13 / Singapore:NC-16
Trivia:
When this movie's North American distributions were under contracts of Weinstein Company, it was titled "Master of the Crimson Armor" for American appeal. But since they were given to Warner Independent Pictures, they used the English title used in most countries called "The Promise".
(more)
Awards:
Nominated for Golden Globe.
Another 5 nominations
(more)
|
|
User Comments:
34 out of 56 people found the following comment useful:-
in the midst of carnage on a battlefield, a desperately hungry girl makes a Faustian bargain with a Chinese goddess and lives lavishly thereafter to regret it, 5 January 2006
Author:
mjw51-1 from Canada
I think that this is a very good film, in spite of what many people on
this board have said. It is, however, a very different kind of film
altogether; it is almost a pure transposition of folk tale to film,
with all of the magic and illogic and quirky plotting that such tales
involve. Films that attempt to transpose/translate comic books to film
do so best when they manage to get the 'tone' of the comic onto the
screen and recreate as much as possible the graphic and narrative style
of the comic. _The Promise_ does this effectively for folk-tale/myth.
I should probably add that I also like _Operetta Tanuki Goten_, by
Suzuki Seijun, which is also working the same territory, albeit in a
very different way. Chen's film also references highly formalistic
genres like Beijing Opera, hence the acting styles are sometimes very
far from the boring "realism" of most contemporary film. Viewers who
complain of a lack of realism or believable emotion in films like these
should try to climb Rapunzel's hair, and stick to "classic" fare like
_Red Sorghum_ and _Farewell My Concubine_, which, brilliant though they
are, work in the very familiar idiom of 'Art Film', and provide no
difficulty for the kind of viewer who used to say, "I don't watch TV,
but I really like _Masterpiece Theatre_".
Yimou and Kaige, with their latest films, are pushing Chinese film, and
therefore international film, in new directions altogether, and part of
that push is clearly an attempt to escape the heavy yoke of the
'European Art Film' tradition, the 'quirky-Indie-imitation-thereof'
tradition, and the narrow confines of the various 'martial arts film'
traditions as well. I say, good on them, and shame to those who won't
celebrate creative development because it betrays their deeply
conservative and traditionalist expectations. As to the suggestion that
their recent work betrays a kind of "Hollywood-ification", all I can
say is, "huh?"
Check for other user comments. - I have seen this movie and would like to comment on it
Message Boards Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Wu ji (2005)
Recommendations If you like this title, we also recommend... The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Show more recommendations
Add a recommendation
Email this page to a friend 
Update Information
|
company.�
Advertise on IMDb.�
License our content.
