If you had the chance to decide your fate -- become someone rich and powerful but unable to truly experience love or just go on living life as is -- would you do it? Kaige Chen's "Wu ji," which translates to "The Promise," gives someone that chance.
Princess Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung) was once an orphan given the option to remainn a dirty, penniless girl or become a princess by the Goddess Manshen (Cheng Qian). As a child, Qingcheng chose to become a princess who wouldn't go hungry, but she didn't realize that her actions would change the future of the kingdom. She also didn't take into account that riches wouldn't take the place of true love.
A horde of barbarians descends on the kingdom and General Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada), master of the crimson armor, won't allow them to succeed in their uprising. He takes over a hundred slaves -- that for some reason only know how to crawl -- into a valley to, basically, be sacrificed. One slave, Kunlun (Dong-Kun Jang) survives this attack because he comes from the Land of Snow, a long-dead region where people were able run faster than time. Astonished by this occurrence, the General has Kunlun become his personal slave.
The evil Wuhuan (Nicholas Tse) wants to take over the kingdom -- he's already destroyed plenty of other cultures. He has taken the emperor and the princess hostage and sends a deadly assassin, Snow Wolf (Ye Liu), to kill the General.
The master of the crimson armor is injured and sends Kunlun in his place -- wearing the armor -- to save the emperor. Kunlun, although meaning well, kills the emperor and saves the princess, which sends the story into a tailspin.
In a case of mistaken identity, the princess falls in love with the man in the armor, whom she thinks is the General. No longer a man people admire and look up to, the General gets strung up in a tree for killing the emperor by his own soldiers. All of this happens while Snow Wolf introduces Kunlun to the past he'd forgotten.
It's another form of a Cinderella story, with a slave trying to achieve the love of royalty with people standing in the way. One of the first Asian imports to the U.S. not starring China's golden girl, Zhang Ziyi, and it's the most expensive movie in China's history. Ambition, fantasy, fate, will and love all combine in "The Promise," but perhaps the project itself was too ambitious.
If there's one thing that Asian filmmakers have been able to master, it's beautiful cinematography. Movies like "The Promise" make a movement of a piece of fabric or the way the actors dance across the screen can leave anyone breathless.
The colors are shocking. The first scene of the movie has a young Qingcheng wearing a colorful garment and paired with a background of gray tones. The crimson armor the General and his soldiers wear doesn't just announce their presence, it screams for attention.
But people can only be mystified by the scenery for a short time before realizing that the story isn't up to par. "The Promise" suffers because the fantasy land of generals and princesses has been done before, and better.
Another downside occurs with the Qingcheng character. With movies like "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero" portraying strong female characters, "The Promise" retreats into the world where a woman is always the damsel in distress. Cheung spends most of her time crying, screaming or hugging another male. The only time she stands up for herself, she's seen as a snake rather than actually strong.
Sanada, seen before by American audiences in "The Last Samurai," is a wonderful actor. He conveys all emotions through wonderful acting and body language that an international audience can understand.
If you admire the new Asian film style and don't mind a disappointing plot line, you'll be satisfied. Those people who don't want to pay for a subtitled film just to be let down by what you read on the screen, "The Promise" isn't for you.
It's a movie with beautiful packaging, but something less than special on the inside.
"The Promise" opens at Landmark's Downer Theatre on Friday, May 5.
Originally from Des Plaines, Ill., Heather moved to Milwaukee to earn a B.A. in journalism from Marquette University. With a tongue-twisting last name like Leszczewicz, it's best to go into a career where people don't need to say your name often.
However, she's still sticking to some of her Illinoisan ways (she won't reform when it comes to things like pop, water fountain or ATM), though she's grown to enjoy her time in the Brew City.
Although her journalism career is still budding, Heather has had the chance for some once-in-a-lifetime interviews with celebrities like actor Vince Vaughn and actress Charlize Theron, director Cameron Crowe and singers Ben Kweller and Isaac Hanson of '90s brother boy band Hanson.
Heather's a self-proclaimed workaholic but loves her entertainment. She's a real television and movie fanatic, book nerd, music junkie, coffee addict and pop culture aficionado.
