Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

laojim This is a film about a little girl who is hungry so she steals bread but she meets a goddess who tells her that her she can be beautiful and rich but that she will never find true love. She is told that her fate is now settled and cannot be changed, now that she has made her promise. I can't recall exactly what the promise was, but it had something to do with all that and her life does indeed turn out that way until a slave, mistaken for a general, kills the girls paramour.It is impossible to explain what is interesting and annoying about this film without skipping to the end. The middle is filled with quite pretty scenes of the king, the slave, the guy from the snow country, the girl, now grown to be a princess, and a few others. The blurb insists that it is the most beautiful film ever made but it is nowhere near that. It is, however, quite pretty. I won't get into how all the characters finish up, but I have to tell you what happens at the very end, so you might want to come back after you have seen the film.There follows, of course, a long series of complicated ups and downs for all the characters until the very end when our heroine seems to have found love indeed. Is the goddess very irritated? Peeved? Not at all. She shows up and blithely tells everyone that promises made to the gods are as fragile as any other and that fate can be changed. Now, I don't know about you, but if I had made some deal with a goddess for some unchangeable fate and then when all the suffering and struggle was over had that goddess tell me that, well, you know, it can all be changed, can't it? I would be seriously angry.I frankly don't know if this is a case of bad writing in which the author couldn't figure out a good ending so he just has the goddess, the moving power behind all of it, show up and say that your should forget all about it or if this is some sort of thing that makes sense to the Chinese way of thinking.In the Buddhist way of thinking there are gods and goddesses, demons and devils, but they aren't really very important and one can well have a form of Buddhism without any gods. Some say that Buddhism is atheistic, but i think goes a bit far. In the Chinese tradition it seems true that the gods are unreliable. Every Chinese village has a shrine to some local god who has the duty of making sure things go well for the village. If things don't do well they tear down the shrine and build a new one to some other god who will jolly well see to it that the village prospers and keeps out of trouble. Perhaps there is something of the sort at work here, I don't know. It is very odd.

berlin55 I think that the basic premise of this film is to do with levels of love: - love of your people, your family - and love in the sense of comradeship, love in terms of loyalty in the military sense, and love between a man and woman. These different kinds of love appeal to cultures in different ways - and perhaps in one country sentimentality is seen as "cheesy" - however I think then one would have to call "City Lights" or "Miracle in Milan" cheesy - which they certainly aren't - and of course in the latter one has supernatural happenings - in some ways similar to "Promise". I found from my own point of view the film had faults, but never once did I see this as a martial arts film like "Crouching Tiger" - it is more in line with the Chinese ghost stories - a genre I think this film has obvious ties to. The cinematography in the film was brilliant. I felt aesthetically it was at times quite breathtaking. Having said that the special effects did at times border on the comical - yet anyone who knows anything about Chinese ghost stories will know this is pardonable. We have to not only suspend our disbelief, but accept the generic parameters. The film is full of symbolism redolent of Chinese mythology Colours e.g. red & white)- yet as we know from the director's interview (DVD)- this is not a film of nationalism, but one of accepting differences - and in many ways asserting one's identity against a hegemonic authority. This is true in the film - and in the cast who come from several Asian countries - a point made by the director. I have given it 10 points - because I dislike films being criticized for not meeting generic expectations - when they actually never intended to be in that genre. Secondly, because I am a sentimentalist and this film worked for me.

quintaldo It is about beauty and meaning. Yes, it is a fairy tale. How refreshing after decades of Disney low-grade tales and looks! This movie makes me feel like china taking over the world would be a good thing : You cant beat Chinese culture. The movie is highly personal and courageous, it is a statement of aesthetics as well as a philosophical one. I love it how it crashes through the preconceived notions, habits and expectations of the audience to bring forth its own powerful vision. I was taken aback at the start but the sheer beauty of some scenes took me into it. Don't ask yourself what it is about, it is just too beautiful for you to care. And there is a whole lot of meaning if you look into it. This meaning is on another level from the one of usual movies. This makes it all the better and more daring. It is soulful. It tells you about the inner worlds, as well as about ethics and decision. It is as a fairy tale should be : inspiring, meaningful, uplifting and strengthening your aliveness and involvement in the world. Helping you reconnect with your purpose and identity. Thank you, whoever made this piece of art. I'm deeply grateful.

Claudio Carvalho When the world was young, laid a Kingdom between the Land of Snow and the Barbarian Territory where gods and men lived side by side and promises were lies. When the poor and starving orphaned girl Qingcheng meets the Goddess Manshen (Hong Chen), she accepts to become the wealthy beauty of beauties with the curse that she would lose every man she loves, unless three things happen: snow falls in the spring, time moves backwards and the dead comes back to life. Years later, the slave Kunlun (Dong-Kun Jang) helps the Great General Master of the Crimson Armor Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada) to defeat a barbarian army with almost seven times more warriors, and Kunlun becomes his slave. When Guangming is wounded, he asks Kunlun to wear his armor and save the king from the cruel Duke of the North Wuhuan (Nicholas Tse) that put the Imperial City under siege with his army. However, Kunlun kills the king to save Princess Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung) and promises her to never let her die. Princess Qingcheng falls in love for the man of the crimson armor that she believes is General Guangming. When Snow Wolf (Ye Liu) saves Kunlun and brings him to the Land of Snow, he recollects his childhood when his mother and sister were killed by the evil Wuhuan. Kunlun decides to return to the Kingdom to face Wuhuan and fight for his love."Wu Ji" is one of the most beautiful fantasies that I have ever seen, and I list this magnificent film among my favorites. The story has romance, magic, betrayal, loyalty, action, supported by a stunning cinematography, great screenplay, wonderful special effects and awesome direction and performances. This film is surprisingly underrated in IMDb, with and user rating of 5.6. Cecilia Cheung is one of the most beautiful actresses of cinema and is perfect in the role of the Beauty of Beauties. In the end, fate can be changed. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "A Promessa" ("The Promise")