The Promise

Director Chen Kaige has previously made classics like Farewell my Concubine and The Emperor and the Assassin. The Promise offers a labyrinth of turns and twists. This is a so-called wuxia, a sword- fight movie, but it is also a love story about a cursed concubine. General Guangming and his 3,000 well-trained soldiers collide with a horde of 20,000 barbarians who threaten to invade the country. In one more spectacular action sequence after another, swords clang together while flags are flapping in the wind and soldiers in elegant slow motion fight to their last drop of blood. The Promise was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. kk