It’s one glorious ‘Promise’

Editor’s note: A longer version of this review was published Dec. 30, 2005, when “The Promise” opened briefly in L.A. to qualify for Oscar nominations.

*

Chen Kaige’s “The Promise” is lots of things at once: an exquisite fairy tale, a glorious martial arts fantasy, a romantic epic of exceptional emotional resonance and a consideration of the paradoxical nature of destiny, in which Chen suggests that the workings of fate are not absolution for personal responsibility. Chen’s 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.

At its heart is the eternal triangle, with an echo of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Kurosawa’s “Kagemusha.” The delicate beauty Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung) falls in love with the great military leader Gen. Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada), believing he dared to kill an emperor in order to save her life. But her savior was actually the general’s slave, Kunlun (Jang Dong-Gun), his identity hidden.

Every general requires a worthy adversary, and Guangming’s is the wily, cruel and effete Wuhuan (Nicholas Tse). As time goes by the characters and their fates attain a Shakespearean grandeur and accrue the complexity of the key figures of Chen’s landmark “Farewell, My Concubine.” The film’s title refers to a promise Qingcheng broke in childhood that reverberates throughout the picture to assert that what counts in life above all else is honor.

Intentionally or otherwise, Chen honors the memory of the late, great King Hu in expressing a profound spirituality through the martial arts.

*

‘The Promise’

MPAA rating: Unrated

A Warner Independent Pictures release. Director Chen Kaige. Producers Chen Hong, Han San Ping, Etchie Stroh. Screenplay by Chen Kaige and Zhang Tan; from a story by Chen Kaige. Director of photography Peter Pau. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.

In selected theaters.