Release Date:
Friday, May 5, 2006
With a $30 million budget, The Promise (also known as Master of theCrimson Armor) is easily the most expensive film to ever come out of China.Sadly, it's not the bestthey should have spent more money. This ambitiousmartial arts love story about an orphan who makes a Faustian bargain to turnherself into a goddess mixes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/House of Flying Daggersstyle visuals, but comes up short in the CGIdepartment. A massive stampede of bulls is meant to be spectacular butsimply looks phony, while other effects shots are half-baked. Sure, it'sstill a pretty cool movie, but sadly, this one doesn't live up to itspromise.