Like Hero, or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this fantasy martial arts movie tells of star-crossed lovers in semi-mythical past; the love story and the fight scenes are not as compelling, though.
The
Promise is a fantasy action movie that attempts to appeal to the same
audience as the Zhang Yimou movies Hero and House of Flying Daggers.
It has the same basic elements-mythical storyline, a setting in the distant but
unspecified past, gravity-defying scenes and swordplay, and the story of
separated lovers at the center. The main characters are a slave who
miraculously survives a massacre, the general he serves, and a beautiful woman
who, in the film’s opening, makes a Faustian pact with a goddess. She will become
wealthy, but all who love her will leave her. Hong King director Chen Kaige has
made a number of successful imports, including
Farewell My Concubine (1993) and the similarly epic Emperor
and the Assassin (1999), so it would seem that the movie might be as good
as Zhang’s. There are certain excellent scenes, particularly the one in which
the slave, pretending to be his master, dashingly saves the heroine while
simultaneously making himself the enemy of the ruler. I also liked the massive
battle scene in which the slave defies fate, even though the CGI effects are
apparent. Aside from some of the effects, the movie’s gorgeous. But the martial
arts battles were a disappointment. And most of all, the love story was not one
for the ages. The formula for this type of movie is that the man is separated
by fate from his true love. If done properly, we spend the movie in
anticipation. But, perhaps because she is relatively passive, perhaps because
her connection to her love is based upon one incident, I wasn’t anticipating so
much as thinking, get on with it.
posted 8/23/13
No comments:
Post a Comment