General Guangming battling a horde of barbarians
The Promise (2005) Chinese Movie Information
Title in Chinese – 无极
Title in Pinyin – Wu Ji
Genre – Kungfu romantic fantasy
Subject/theme – A general and a slave both fall in love with a woman cursed as a child never to have true love
Language – Mandarin
Region – China
Release date
China – 15 December 2005
Hong Kong 15 December 2005
France – 4 February 2006
Japan – 11 February 2006
Director – Chen Kaige
Cast & Role Played
Jang Dong-guan – Kunlun, a slave from the Land of Snow
Cecilia Cheung – Qingcheng, a beautiful woman cursed as a child
Liu Ye – Snow Wolf, an assassin from the Land of Snow
Nicholas Tse – Duke Wuhuan
Hiroyuki Sanada – General Guangming
Chen Hong – Manshen, a goddess
Story
A starving girl is given a life of luxury and great beauty and cursed to lose every man she loves until snow falls in spring, time moves backwards and the dead come back to life. Years later after defeating an army of 20,000 barbarians with an army of 3,000 men, general Guanming and his slave Kunlun return to the capital to save the King who is besieged by the reengage Duke Wuhuan.
General Guanming is injured by the assassin Snow Wolf so his slave Kunlun dons his armour and goes to the city to save the king who will be the only one without a weapon. Upon arriving in the city, he sees a man with a sword attacking an unarmed woman and kills the man. That man is unfortunately the king and the woman is his concubine Qingcheng. Qingcheng falls in love with Kunlun but a love triangle develops after general Guanming takes possession of his armour from Kunling and claims it was he who rescued Qingcheng.
Duke of Wuhuan has unfinished business with Kunlun, General Guanming and Qingchen who he desires and a climatic confrontation is inevitable. Qingcheng must face her mistaken love while general Guangming and Kunlun join forces with Snow Wolf to battle Duke Wuhuan.
Editor’s Review of The Promise – Score 7/10
The Promise is a visually spectacular and surreal movie that sacrifices reality and a believable plot for stunning imagery and breath taking scenes. The acting in The Promise is very good with Cecilia Chuenng giving one of her best performances and Liu Ye and Nicolas Tse are excellent in their supporting roles. Over all The Promise is an attractive and flamboyant movie with an abstract ending that feels more like an afterthought.
