Synopsis
An orphaned girl, driven by poverty at such a young age, makes a promise with an enchantress. In return for beauty and the admiration of every man, she will never be with the man she loves. This spell cannot be broken unless the impossible happens: snow falling in spring and the dead coming back to life. Now a grown and beautiful princess, she regrets her promise, for all of the men she's loved has always been met with tragedy.
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Cast
- Cecilia CheungPrincess Qingcheng
- Liu YeSnow Wolf
- Hong ChenGoddess Manshen
- Cheng QianThe Emperer
- Jang Dong-gunKunlun
- Hiroyuki SanadaGeneral Guangming
- Nicholas TseWuhuan
- Yu XiaoweiYe Li
- Chun-XiaoPrincess Qingcheng (voice)
- Guan XiaotongYoung Qingcheng
Recommendations
- 100
The A.V. Club
For Kaige, The Promise can't exactly be called a return to form--it's more a return to "Hero" and "House Of Flying Daggers" director Zhang Yimou's form. Either way, it's still glorious. - 90
Los Angeles Times
Chen's masterful, deeply perceptive direction of his superb cast is equaled by the film's luminous cinematography, rich yet spare and stylized production and costume design, and rousing score. - 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
I found The Promise pretty hard to resist. A heady blend of swordplay, somersaults, fairy-tale romance, and computer-generated whoosh. - 70
L.A. Weekly
Some critics are badly selling the film short, when the story it tells, measured strictly in terms of emotional power and overall fun, is as moving and pleasurable as any matinee item by Ford, Hawks or Raoul Walsh. - 60
Variety
A mixed bag of near-risible storylines, second-rate CG effects, some fabulous set pieces, somewhat cartoonish martial arts fighting and difficult international casting. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
While it aspires to draw the same audiences who admired "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero," The Promise is but a pale imitation of those landmark films. - 50
Village Voice
You can't help wondering how the same Fifth Gen filmmaker who made "Yellow Earth" and "Life on a String" could've fallen on such hard times, or justified such goofiness to himself. - 50
ReelViews
The over-the-top acting is forgivable, but the plot's incoherence is not.
