The Promise (Master of Crimson Armor) (Wu ji) (2005)

31% of critics liked it
(77 reviews)
41% of users liked it
(23,439 ratings)

Love and war conspire to create a romantic triangle in this lavish historical epic from director Chen Kaige. A young girl who has lost her parents to the violence of war bravely refuses to obey the orders of a warrior's son, and is approached by a spirit who offers her a life of wealth and power as… More Love and war conspire to create a romantic triangle in this lavish historical epic from director Chen Kaige. A young girl who has lost her parents to the violence of war bravely refuses to obey the orders of a warrior's son, and is approached by a spirit who offers her a life of wealth and power as a reward, but with a catch -- she will never know the love of a man unless she learns how to bring the dead back to life by turning back time. Two decades later, the orphaned girl has become Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung), the adopted daughter of The King (Cheng Qian), and her nation is yet again in the grip of war. During a long and bloody battle, Kunlun (Jang Dong-gun), a slave who has been ordered to fight, proves his skill and bravery in combat, and his commander, General Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada), rewards him by making him his personal assistant. When Guangming learns that the King is in danger, he and Kunlun set out to rescue him. Kunlun is disguised as Guangming as they prepare to fight the enemy leader Wuhuan (Nicholas Tse), who is out to assassinate the King, but when they arrive, they find that the strong-willed Qingcheng is in greater danger than the potentate as her father and his soldiers struggle to verbally and physically cut her down to size. Kunlun and Guangming impulsively rescue Qingcheng instead of the King, and as they look for a safe haven for the princess, both men fall in love with her, while both the King's forces and Wuhuan are determined to find them. Budgeted at 30 million dollars, Mo Gik (aka The Promise, Master of the Crimson Armor, and Wu Ji) was a major box-office success in China before receiving an international release. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 43 min.
Directed By: Kaige Chen
Written By: Kaige Chen, Zhang Tan
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Dec 15, 2005 Wide
On DVD: Apr 18, 2007
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures

Critic Reviews

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Has been criticized by some reviewers for its low-tech special effects. Curiously, I found this technical transparency part of the film's enormous charm.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Chen Kaige clearly intended this Chinese fantasy-action spectacle to top Zhang Yimou's Hero, and I must admit that I prefer it to the earlier movie.
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
The Promise is too full of frenetic disconnection and arbitrary comings and goings to connect meaningfully with the hearts and minds of its audience.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
With The Promise Chen Kaige has proven enough of a professional that he can make the product. But he remains too much of an artist not to scribble on his signature.
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Laden with a plot that could generously be called silly or, less forgivingly, stupid, it never achieves lift-off despite numerous scenes of warriors doing battle in midair.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Simply in terms of its visual poetry, the exhilarating effects of image upon image of dazzling impossibility, The Promise is not to be missed.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
More risible than poetic
Brandon Fibbs, BrandonFibbs.com
The Promise is an over-wrought and laughably goofy film, an empty and pale imitation of the far better films that have gone on before it.
Mark R. Leeper, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Faustian bargain with a goddess. Huge armies march. Men out-race the wind. Assassins make devious plots. Spectacular scenes generated largely in computers.
Prairie Miller, WBAI Web Radio
Medieval Chinese legend, along with myths of the new market economy.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
A queer camp classic.
Lisa Ann Cockrel, Christianity Today
A fairy tale for adults that allows the viewer to inhabit an entirely different world, and in doing so, becomes an exercise of the imagination.
John Wirt, Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Beautiful but slight.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
An epic fantasy that tries to outdo Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but doesn't touch us emotionally.
Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly
Chen Kaige may seriously think he's creating film art in his empty Promise, but he's best at slinging bull, lots of them.
Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)
if you can plant your tongue in your cheek and accept the exuberant goofiness of the special effects, "The Promise" actually turns out to be a decently entertaining slash-and-kick flick.
Jon Popick, Planet Sick-Boy
Just about everything is choppy.
Boo Allen, Denton Record Chronicle (TX)
Dazzling if not always coherent.
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette
This isn't nearly as good as it claims to be.
Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve
Confused and cartoonish

Read all 23 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

xGary X

A famous and well respected general and his faithful slave vie for the affections of a beautiful princess while battling the evil ruler of their land. Inevitably trying to ape the epic scale and poetry of the likes of Crouching Tiger or Hero, The Promise is actually just a dim-witted… More
A famous and well respected general and his faithful slave vie for the affections of a beautiful princess while battling the evil ruler of their land. Inevitably trying to ape the epic scale and poetry of the likes of Crouching Tiger or Hero, The Promise is actually just a dim-witted fairy tale populated with badly acted cartoon characters who spout inane fortune cookie platitudes at one another. Visually, the costume design is as attractive as you'd expect but there's also some very dodgy set design and an overuse of awful, cheap looking CGI. There is no narrative flow or even logic to the story and Kaige Chen is clearly just a hack Michael Bay wannabe, making this stir-fried turkey one of the worst examples of the Americanization of Asian cinema I've yet seen. Avoid.
Jens S

In a world where people running as fast as the wind drag girls on leashes behind them like kites anything's possible. So no one should make the mistake and compare this to fantastic but somewhat historical movies like Hero. This is pure fantasy, even without made-up creatures.… More
In a world where people running as fast as the wind drag girls on leashes behind them like kites anything's possible. So no one should make the mistake and compare this to fantastic but somewhat historical movies like Hero. This is pure fantasy, even without made-up creatures. The plot of the cursed girl between three men isn't entirely new but the story remains rather unpredictable in all its craziness. It's not always entirely certain why the characters act the way they do, but each and every frame of this movie looks like a frikkin picture. Its picture should be in dictionaries under eye candy. The stunningly beautiful cinematography, sets, costumes and design combined with a pompous soundtrack make up for a lot of plot holes and create a larger than life experience of epic proportions. When the ugly guy in black is not the villain and the pretty bad guy still has the feather-like hairdo after taking his helmet off you realize you're in the middle of a real life manga. The result is so very entertaining, that all its flaws are easily ignored.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"The Promise" starts out with a young girl, Qingcheng, forced to scavenge food from dead soldiers to feed herself. After having lost a morsel of food, she is approached by the goddess Manshen(Hong Chen) and told that she has a great destiny ahead of her.… More
[font=Century Gothic]"The Promise" starts out with a young girl, Qingcheng, forced to scavenge food from dead soldiers to feed herself. After having lost a morsel of food, she is approached by the goddess Manshen(Hong Chen) and told that she has a great destiny ahead of her. In exchange, she will lose every man she ever loves. Qingcheng agrees.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]Flashforward to General Guangming(Hiroyuki Sanada) whose forces are being outnumbered 20,000 to 3,000 against a horde of barbarians. He uses 133 slaves to smoke out the enemy attack, a stampede of bulls, which they do. One of the slaves, Kunlun(Dong-Kun Jang), stops crawling(slaves can only kneel and crawl which makes it very inconvenient if you need them to get something off the top shelf) and begins running very quickly. He outruns the bulls and leads them back to the barbarians, giving the general's forces a rout.(Kunlun is then drafted by the Detroit Lions in the first round of the NFL draft.) The general is so impressed, he appoints Kunlun as his personal slave.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]And, what about Qingcheng(Cecilia Cheung), you ask? Well, she married the king(Cheng Qian) and is now a princess but the castle is being besieged by the Duke of the North, Wuhuan(Nicholas Tse). So, Qingcheng is on the roof about to invent the striptease as Kunlun rides in masqueraded as General Guangming(long story, trust me)...[/font] [font=Century Gothic]"The Promise" may be great looking but it is still a mess and it gets more convoluted as it goes along. And it feels like there were essential scenes cut out of it which would have added much needed substance. Overall, the central lessonof the movie is not to make any potentially life changing decisions while on an empty stomach.[/font]
Lesley N

Chinese fairy story about the slave, the general and the woman they both want who is destined to lose every man she falls in love with. Apparently one of the most expensive fllms made in China and it shows - it's very very pretty. <img… More
Chinese fairy story about the slave, the general and the woman they both want who is destined to lose every man she falls in love with. Apparently one of the most expensive fllms made in China and it shows - it's very very pretty. <img src="http://celebritywonder.ugo.com/thumbV2/mp/2006_Wu_ji_(The_Promise)/tn/2006_the_promise_003.jpg">
William G

A gaudy spectacle of excess best viewed as parody.
Magnus X

"Once you have accepted your destiny, nothing can alter it unless time flows backwards, snow falls in the spring and the dead come back to life." A beautiful, poetic and sometimes cruel fairy tale about love, war, honor and pride and where nothing is what it seems. A great… More
"Once you have accepted your destiny, nothing can alter it unless time flows backwards, snow falls in the spring and the dead come back to life." A beautiful, poetic and sometimes cruel fairy tale about love, war, honor and pride and where nothing is what it seems. A great adventure film with a powerful score in the same tradition as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero.
Anthony V

A beautiful fantasy/romance.
FanGirl B

Like watching a dream and with about as much of a storyline. I was watching the extended scenes that were on the DVD and I wish they had left most of them in because they would have added a lot to the storyline. But I would recommed this movie for the visual beauty of it alone.