I just finished watching The Promise today, I'm glad Cecilia Cheung chose Jang Dong Gun at the end~ ^^ Too bad Nicolas Tse played a bad guy.. but I still liked him the most even though he sounded kinda.. :\
I liked the part where Jang Dong Gun says "I want to go with you, because you have meat". :3
The Promise (Wu Ji) Chen Kaige film starring Jang Dong Gun, Hiroyuki Sanada
#152
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Posted 30 January 2006 - 05:41 AM
QUOTE(evekisara @ Jan 30 2006, 12:32 AM) 
This sounds interesting - I'll be watching it soon... too bad most of you didn't think it was that great :/
Yes please do evekisara, despite the bad reviews, the outright thrashing!
Source: http://blog.naver.com/loshui37.do
The Promise promo in Korea
Photo by Choi Ji-sun
Photo Source: http://blog.naver.com/seaswimyes/10001318524
Photo by Ho Hye-yun
Photo by Kim Ji-hye
Photo Source: http://blog.naver.com/seaswimyes/10001318524
Photo by Ho Hye-yun
Photo by Kim Ji-hye
credit: YoonEe, jdg eglish forum board
#153
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Posted 10 February 2006 - 08:24 PM
Movies IN SIGHT/Experimental epic turns fantasy multicultural
02/10/2006
By AYAKO KARINO; Contributing Writer
WU JI (THE PROMISE) Opens Saturday ; 121 minutes, in Chinese ;Salonpas Louvre Marunouchi in Tokyo and elsewhere
If you've seen Zhang Yimou's "Hero" (2002) or "House of Flying Daggers" (2004), you'll be well-aware of the trend in Chinese cinema today for making stunning, special-effects enhanced epics that wow movie buffs the world over.
So you can imagine how high expectations were when Chen Kaige--another prominent Chinese filmmaker whose knack for examining human emotions is evident in such movies as "Farewell My Concubine" (1993)--set about tackling the genre with a budget of $30 million (3.6 billion yen), reportedly the largest sum ever invested in a Chinese film.
"I was interested in making a new Asian film," Chen said of the movie, titled "Wu Ji" (The Promise), through an interpreter at a recent news conference in Tokyo. "Now that we're in the 21st century, I think cinema needs to evolve according to its surrounding culture."
But "The Promise" doesn't manage to surpass Zhang's achievements. It's a fantasy film that's a feast for the eyes, but its lack of concrete storytelling and character development means it fails to appeal to viewers' emotions. Chen seems to have put so much effort into creating something new and dazzling that two of the film's most important elements--its narrative and characters--seem somewhat neglected.
That doesn't mean "The Promise" isn't engaging. The film makes a promising start when Chen welcomes viewers into a magical world somewhere in Asia where deities and humans coexist. There, a young war orphan called Qingcheng encounters the Goddess Hanshen (Chen Hong), who offers her all the riches she could ever wish for in exchange for losing every man she falls in love with. Only by reversing time or making the dead come to life can this bond be broken, the goddess says. Desperate to keep herself alive, the young Qingcheng agrees to this "promise."
The enchanting tone is disrupted almost immediately, however, when the film takes viewers 20 years into the future to a battle scene in which Gen. Guangming, played by Hiroyuki Sanada ("The Twilight Samurai," "The Last Samurai"), finds his army trapped and outnumbered. It's Kunlun (Jang Dong-Kun), one of Guangming's slaves and an exceptionally fast runner, who saves the day when he reroutes a herd of stampeding buffaloes. Guangming, resplendent in the crimson armor of a victor, is so taken with Kunlun's deed that he makes him his personal slave.
The plot thickens when Guangming is injured during a surprise attack by the black-shrouded assassin Snow Wolf (Liu Ye), sent by the evil Duke Wuhaun (Nicholas Tse), when Guangming and Kunlun are on their way to save their king (Qian Cheng) from an attack by the evil duke. Guangming has no choice but to let Kunlun wear his crimson armor to accomplish the task in his stead. But Kunlun ends up not saving the king at all. Instead he falls in love with Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung)--now a princess. He kills the king and jumps off a cliff to prove his love to Qingcheng.
The twists and turns increase after that. Qingcheng falls for the man in the crimson armor--Kunlun--but mistakenly thinks Guangming is her savior because he's the man widely known to wear the remarkable garb. Guangming, on the other hand, knows Qingcheng has mistaken him for Kunlun, but he, too, falls in love with Qingcheng almost immediately and takes advantage of her misunderstanding. Thus a love triangle forms among Qingcheng and the master and slave.
"I play a man at the peak of all his powers who falls to the nadir and becomes a slave of love," Sanada said at the news conference. "Jang, on the other hand, slowly discovers his identity and starts treading the noble path."
One of most distinctive aspects of the film is the multinational cast Chen assembled. Sanada is from Japan, while Jang is from South Korea and Cheung from Hong Kong.
"I had an international cast in mind from the start," said Chen. "This film is like an experiment on the cultural environment we're able to make in Asia today."
Sanada and Jang pull off their roles as Chinese characters relatively well on screen, despite the language difficulties. Well, at least for non-Mandarin speakers they do. As in "Memoirs of a Geisha," whose Asian cast members might have irritated some native speakers with their unconvincing attempts at English, it may well be a different story if you happen to be a native Mandarin speaker.
In every aspect, "The Promise" is an all-out fantasy that makes its own rules. The film gets even more complicated in the second half, as characters start running around all over the place and subplots multiply, including a tangent into how Snow Wolf became an assassin. Some supposedly serious scenes, such as when Kunlun runs at top speed through a field, start to come across as almost comical.
The best way to enjoy this film is to buy into the world Chen has created. Some scenes are stunningly beautiful, including the one when Qingcheng is imprisoned in a giant gilded bird cage as well as the illusory scene with the blooming cherry tree where the final battle among Guangming, Kunlun and Wuhaun takes place.
On the whole, while "The Promise" is not a must-see film, Chen's determination to create a powerful Asian epic like this makes it worth seeing.(IHT/Asahi: February 10,2006)
Source: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/...0602100156.html
credit: YoonEe, Just Jang Dong Gun
02/10/2006
By AYAKO KARINO; Contributing Writer
WU JI (THE PROMISE) Opens Saturday ; 121 minutes, in Chinese ;Salonpas Louvre Marunouchi in Tokyo and elsewhere
If you've seen Zhang Yimou's "Hero" (2002) or "House of Flying Daggers" (2004), you'll be well-aware of the trend in Chinese cinema today for making stunning, special-effects enhanced epics that wow movie buffs the world over.
So you can imagine how high expectations were when Chen Kaige--another prominent Chinese filmmaker whose knack for examining human emotions is evident in such movies as "Farewell My Concubine" (1993)--set about tackling the genre with a budget of $30 million (3.6 billion yen), reportedly the largest sum ever invested in a Chinese film.
"I was interested in making a new Asian film," Chen said of the movie, titled "Wu Ji" (The Promise), through an interpreter at a recent news conference in Tokyo. "Now that we're in the 21st century, I think cinema needs to evolve according to its surrounding culture."
But "The Promise" doesn't manage to surpass Zhang's achievements. It's a fantasy film that's a feast for the eyes, but its lack of concrete storytelling and character development means it fails to appeal to viewers' emotions. Chen seems to have put so much effort into creating something new and dazzling that two of the film's most important elements--its narrative and characters--seem somewhat neglected.
That doesn't mean "The Promise" isn't engaging. The film makes a promising start when Chen welcomes viewers into a magical world somewhere in Asia where deities and humans coexist. There, a young war orphan called Qingcheng encounters the Goddess Hanshen (Chen Hong), who offers her all the riches she could ever wish for in exchange for losing every man she falls in love with. Only by reversing time or making the dead come to life can this bond be broken, the goddess says. Desperate to keep herself alive, the young Qingcheng agrees to this "promise."
The enchanting tone is disrupted almost immediately, however, when the film takes viewers 20 years into the future to a battle scene in which Gen. Guangming, played by Hiroyuki Sanada ("The Twilight Samurai," "The Last Samurai"), finds his army trapped and outnumbered. It's Kunlun (Jang Dong-Kun), one of Guangming's slaves and an exceptionally fast runner, who saves the day when he reroutes a herd of stampeding buffaloes. Guangming, resplendent in the crimson armor of a victor, is so taken with Kunlun's deed that he makes him his personal slave.
The plot thickens when Guangming is injured during a surprise attack by the black-shrouded assassin Snow Wolf (Liu Ye), sent by the evil Duke Wuhaun (Nicholas Tse), when Guangming and Kunlun are on their way to save their king (Qian Cheng) from an attack by the evil duke. Guangming has no choice but to let Kunlun wear his crimson armor to accomplish the task in his stead. But Kunlun ends up not saving the king at all. Instead he falls in love with Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung)--now a princess. He kills the king and jumps off a cliff to prove his love to Qingcheng.
The twists and turns increase after that. Qingcheng falls for the man in the crimson armor--Kunlun--but mistakenly thinks Guangming is her savior because he's the man widely known to wear the remarkable garb. Guangming, on the other hand, knows Qingcheng has mistaken him for Kunlun, but he, too, falls in love with Qingcheng almost immediately and takes advantage of her misunderstanding. Thus a love triangle forms among Qingcheng and the master and slave.
"I play a man at the peak of all his powers who falls to the nadir and becomes a slave of love," Sanada said at the news conference. "Jang, on the other hand, slowly discovers his identity and starts treading the noble path."
One of most distinctive aspects of the film is the multinational cast Chen assembled. Sanada is from Japan, while Jang is from South Korea and Cheung from Hong Kong.
"I had an international cast in mind from the start," said Chen. "This film is like an experiment on the cultural environment we're able to make in Asia today."
Sanada and Jang pull off their roles as Chinese characters relatively well on screen, despite the language difficulties. Well, at least for non-Mandarin speakers they do. As in "Memoirs of a Geisha," whose Asian cast members might have irritated some native speakers with their unconvincing attempts at English, it may well be a different story if you happen to be a native Mandarin speaker.
In every aspect, "The Promise" is an all-out fantasy that makes its own rules. The film gets even more complicated in the second half, as characters start running around all over the place and subplots multiply, including a tangent into how Snow Wolf became an assassin. Some supposedly serious scenes, such as when Kunlun runs at top speed through a field, start to come across as almost comical.
The best way to enjoy this film is to buy into the world Chen has created. Some scenes are stunningly beautiful, including the one when Qingcheng is imprisoned in a giant gilded bird cage as well as the illusory scene with the blooming cherry tree where the final battle among Guangming, Kunlun and Wuhaun takes place.
On the whole, while "The Promise" is not a must-see film, Chen's determination to create a powerful Asian epic like this makes it worth seeing.(IHT/Asahi: February 10,2006)
Source: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/...0602100156.html
credit: YoonEe, Just Jang Dong Gun
#154
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Posted 14 February 2006 - 09:08 PM
The Promise Starring JDG Ranks 4th in Japan
Update : Feb 14, 2006 KST 14:52
The film "The Promise," starring Korean actor Jang Dong-kun, has climbed to fourth place on Japan's box-office chart in the first week of its release there.
According to the Japanese Box-Office Service on Feb. 14, "The Promise," directed by Chen Kaige and starring Jang, Hiroyuki Sanada and Cecilia Cheung, was released in Japan on Feb. 11 through film distribution agency Warner Brothers and finished fourth on the box-office chart over the weekend of Feb. 11-12.
Another film, "Running Wild," directed by Kim Sung-soo and starring Korean stars Kwon Sang-woo and Yu Ji-tae, was released in Japan through film distribution agency Toshiba on Feb. 11, ranking 10th on the same box-office chart. Before its release, "Running Wild" made headlines as it sold 35,000 tickets through advance rservations alone--nearly the largest number of tickets sold in advance for a Korean film in Japan.
Japanese fans took interest in the rivalry between the two hallyu stars, Jang and Kwon, with "The Promise" and "Running Wild" released on the same day in Japan. In Korea, "Running Wild" was released on Jan. 12 and "The Promise" on Jan.16.
Source: http://english.kbs.co.kr/mcontents/enterta...2426_11692.html
Credit to YoonEe for Jang-donggun.com/TY_KSW, soompi jdg thread
Update : Feb 14, 2006 KST 14:52
The film "The Promise," starring Korean actor Jang Dong-kun, has climbed to fourth place on Japan's box-office chart in the first week of its release there.
According to the Japanese Box-Office Service on Feb. 14, "The Promise," directed by Chen Kaige and starring Jang, Hiroyuki Sanada and Cecilia Cheung, was released in Japan on Feb. 11 through film distribution agency Warner Brothers and finished fourth on the box-office chart over the weekend of Feb. 11-12.
Another film, "Running Wild," directed by Kim Sung-soo and starring Korean stars Kwon Sang-woo and Yu Ji-tae, was released in Japan through film distribution agency Toshiba on Feb. 11, ranking 10th on the same box-office chart. Before its release, "Running Wild" made headlines as it sold 35,000 tickets through advance rservations alone--nearly the largest number of tickets sold in advance for a Korean film in Japan.
Japanese fans took interest in the rivalry between the two hallyu stars, Jang and Kwon, with "The Promise" and "Running Wild" released on the same day in Japan. In Korea, "Running Wild" was released on Jan. 12 and "The Promise" on Jan.16.
Source: http://english.kbs.co.kr/mcontents/enterta...2426_11692.html
Credit to YoonEe for Jang-donggun.com/TY_KSW, soompi jdg thread
#155
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Posted 28 February 2006 - 09:34 PM
OMG my friend made me watch this movie today with her cousin and i just have to say that he and I basically laughed throughout the whole friggin' movie.
The ONLY good thing about the movie was that JDG and Nicholas Tse are hot. That's It.
The ONLY good thing about the movie was that JDG and Nicholas Tse are hot. That's It.
siggie<3
#156
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Posted 01 March 2006 - 01:34 AM
couldn't agree more. The show was absolutely hilarious. I think one problem with chinese firms now is that they are all going the big buget way. In a nutshell, they are just shooting it with the hope that it will be nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars. In the end, they lose their sense of artistic direction and the whole film turns out diastrous. Promise is a prime example of that.
#157
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Posted 01 March 2006 - 02:54 PM
didn't like it...what a dud storyline! Nic Tse looked good!
#158
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Posted 14 March 2006 - 01:57 PM
HI 
I WONDER IF ANYBODY HAVE THE OST OF THE PROMISE
I LOOK THE LIST OF OST NUR DON'T APPEAR... PLEASE HELP ME 
I WONDER IF ANYBODY HAVE THE OST OF THE PROMISE
I LOOK THE LIST OF OST NUR DON'T APPEAR... PLEASE HELP ME
#159
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Posted 16 March 2006 - 02:38 PM
this movie was sort of strange and looked sort of fake? but the fact that i got to see nicholas tse and basically the really good actors in asia, made me like the movie... it was sort of dumb but at least i got to see really good actors anyway =)
#160
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Posted 17 March 2006 - 03:12 AM
I had high expectations for this movie, and now i'm really disappointed. I really like watching hong kong movies, but they have been making really crappy films lately.
I didn't really like this movie and i absolutely hated the CGI. The story, the setting, and the atmosphere did not impress me and it seemed too fake. i didn't feel the chemistry between jang dong hun and cecilia cheung. Their love seemed wooden and forced.
I didn't really like this movie and i absolutely hated the CGI. The story, the setting, and the atmosphere did not impress me and it seemed too fake. i didn't feel the chemistry between jang dong hun and cecilia cheung. Their love seemed wooden and forced.
Children are all foreigners- Ralph Waldo Emerson
#161
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Posted 27 March 2006 - 05:51 AM
WHAT?? how come i didn't hear about this before?? ceceilia and nicholas?? this is really weird... haha i thought LDG was some other chinese actor.... weird.. i should check it out
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#162
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Posted 18 April 2006 - 11:06 AM
Thank GOD i didn't buy the movie....i rent the promise dvd last month,i think the story is so boring & make me feel so sleepy 
i agree there's no chemistry between jang dong gun and cecilia cheung.... 
i agree there's no chemistry between jang dong gun and cecilia cheung....
#163
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Posted 18 April 2006 - 05:56 PM
^yeahh my dad bought it and I didn't watch it all YET...I couldn't make through the whole thing
it was sooo boring
it was sooo boring
credits to van van
#164
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Posted 20 April 2006 - 02:50 AM
I watched this movie once month ago.... I didn't understand why cecilia felt in love with jang dong gun... I don't like her style, her make up, and all the things it happened on this movie.... I don't buy this movie when it coming out, I'm sure!
Hello, God! in few wordsthere's something in this world that's more painful than death, it's letting you go.... should i ask you to wait until i can get into your heart? i think i can buy everything in this world if i had enough money, but i can't buy time.... how can i win when he's already taken possession of your heart ?
#165
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Posted 04 May 2006 - 01:43 PM
the promise has beautiful cinematography (not surprising). somehow i found the movie very confusing. i don't dislike the movie but i wouldn't recommend it. i was kinda upset, but maybe it's just me. that crazy hair flowing goddess lady is awesome tho..so friggin pretty. but the cinematography is worth watching.
#166
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Posted 04 May 2006 - 01:48 PM
I was so disappointed by this movie.... I'm an addictive of chinese movies since I was a child.... Chen Kaige made anothers movies better than this one before.....
Chen Kaige made anothers movies better than this one before.....
Hello, God! in few wordsthere's something in this world that's more painful than death, it's letting you go.... should i ask you to wait until i can get into your heart? i think i can buy everything in this world if i had enough money, but i can't buy time.... how can i win when he's already taken possession of your heart ?
#168
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Posted 04 May 2006 - 02:19 PM
I absolutely hate Chen Kaige. He such an overrated director, but he's just a cheap imitation version of Zhang Yimou. His cinematography is cheap cinematography just like that Japanese Casshern movie. It's not really beautiful like Zhang's. It's so tacky like they just threw all the colors on the screen without giving it much thought.
#169
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Posted 04 May 2006 - 05:19 PM
This movie cracked me up. It was a good laugh.
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#170
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Posted 04 May 2006 - 05:31 PM
I watched it a few days ago. I like the costumes (armor, weapons, etc.) and it reminded me of some fantasy RPG game/Dynasty Warriors. Some of the fighting scenes are great but NOT the BATTLE scenes because of the bad CG. There's also quite a few scenes that have really bad CG. Characters and plot developement is just bad in my opinion. What some of the characters did just doesn't make sense given situation...even having the Asian culture in mind. Now I'm not gay but I think Nicholas Tse is great in that movie. Also I think they should cast someone else besides Cecilia Cheung because she seems out of place.
