The_Grim_Reaper_(BG)
16th June 2006, 16:48
Hello again, it's me - the Chinese films critic noob from Bulgaria presenting the new piece of entertainment industry from Asia. The movie is called "The Promise" directed by Chen Kaige (who's previous film "An emperor and an assassin" was simply boring, although it was in Cannes festival official sellection) which was (alongside Zhan Jimou - the director of "The House of flying daggers") from a so called 5th generation directors in China film industry. The term "wuxia pien" stands for "period drama", but in this film there is nothing "period" it's set in a fantasy world where supernatural and real clashes to create a confusing mixture of mythology, wire work, poorly develop characters, a bit of martial arts and beautiful scenery...The story is about a young woman cursed in her past to lose every man she fall in love with, a slave which can run as fast as nothing seen before, a famous general which craves power, a laughable "bad guy" villain which looks like transvestite, and a pale killer which happens to be from the same tribe where the slave is coming...And three out of these four characters are falling in love with the cursed woman, and trying to show off with different words and actions to draw her attention towards any of them. The plot wanders between these characters with no strong development of any of them, giving nothing interesting for the audience to see (except the views from the background where the director of photography was doing really fine job. If you really want a good "wuxia pien" movie go and see "Seven Swords" by Tsui Hark or even "The Myth" with Jackie Chan, don't really bother with this movie, unless you want to watch beautiful scenery with colourful imagination. That was the review, I saw that movie yesterday and now sharing the emotions. Thank for the attention and the patience, all the best...Cheers...Peace I'm out...