Dir/scr: Chen Kaige. China. 2005. 102 mins.

Chen Kaige's first attemptat the Chinese adventure epic which has become a global box-office staple sinceAng Lee's CrouchingTiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's Hero and House Of FlyingDaggers is a commercial, entertaining addition to the genre.

Already hyped as one of themost expensive films ever made in China (budget: $35m), The Promise - subtitled MasterOf The Crimson Armour in the US - is a colourful fantasy of gods, generals,slaves and princesses which should perform strongly throughout the world.

Lacking the visual panacheof Ang or Zhang, it's primarily a diverting entertainment,filled with colourful visual effects that might lack the seamlessness of aHollywood production but possess an energy and imagination which more than compensate.

Rather than Crouching Tiger, which is perhaps anincomparable box-office animal, it should perform along the lines of Hero or Flying Daggers. Hero made$53.6m in North America and $116m overseas, while Flying Daggers took $11.1m in domestic and $81.1m in international.

Like those films, The Promise's international prospectsare greater than in the US, although The Weinstein Co, which boughtEnglish-language territories (North America, UK, Australia and South Africa) recently returned the rights to the producers who are now seeking new distributors. Two cuts exist of the film. The "western" cut, which lasts 102 minutes was the cut which is reviewed here; the Asian cut runs to 121 minutes.

The Promiseopened in China (in that Asian cut) on Dec 15, where it enjoyed a record-breaking first four daysof $9m (RMB74m), outpacing previous title holder Kung-Fu Hustle.

Its success there is assuredgiven its rich fantasy elements and the fact that it has been submitted asChina's Oscar entry. It also won a Golden Globe nomination for best foreignlanguage film - as did Kung Fu Hustle-suggesting a programming life at spring film festivals and healthy critical response.

Set "3,000 years ago in thefuture, somewhere in Asia", the film straightaway reveals its fantasticalnature in the prologue, which follows a young girl scavenging among deadsoldiers on a battlefield. She finds some bread, but is immediately trapped bya little boy who takes her food and makes her promise that she will be hisslave forever. She accepts, but then immediately breaks her promise and fleesto find her mother.

Soon afterwards she isapproached by a goddess, who tells her that her mother is dead and asks her ifshe wants to be a princess when she grows up. She says she does, and acceptsthe condition that, while she will be adored by men, she will never find truelove.

The film cuts to a battle 20years later in which the mighty general Guanming (Sanada) dons his crimson armour to defeat the enemy. Heenlists a slave called Kunlun (Dong-Kun), who has theability to outrun the wind, to lead a pack of wolves into the enemy. Thegeneral is victorious and makes Kunlun his ownpersonal slave.

On the way back to theImperial City to defend his king, the general is confronted by a killer in ablack cloak and attacks and wounds him. The general persuades Kunlun to don the crimson armour, pretend to be him and goto the city to save the king.

Kunlun does so but when he reaches the city, it is alreadyoccupied by the evil Duke Of The North Wuhuan (Tse) who is demandingthat the king surrender his beautiful princess (Cheung) - the little girl fromthe prologue. The king does so, at which point the masked Kunlunarrives and kills him, assuming that anyone who would betray his wife must bean enemy.

Kunlun rescues the princess and they flee the city but Wuhuan is not far behind and Kunlunjumps into a waterfall to save the princess. She, believing him to be Guanming, immediately falls in love.

The film's central stretchsees Kunlun learn of his past as the last survivingmember of a tribe of superhuman people from the Land Of The Snow, and the General, now recovered, himself fall forthe Princess, before a final showdown back in the Imperial City in which allthree men face each other for the hand of the princess, and the goddess' spellis broken.

Shot and designed by Crouching Tiger Oscar winners Peter Pau and Tim Yip respectively, the film has the rich coloursand spectacle one expects of a Chinese epic like this, not to mention plentifulaction choreographed by both martial arts veteran WeiTung and Dion Lam (The Matrix trilogy).

Briskly told and mercifullydevoid of the longueurs to which Chen is prone, it ishis most enjoyable film in years.

Production companies
Beijing 21st Century Shengkai
China Film Group
Beijung Tian You Ltd
Moonstone Entertainment

Chinese distribution
China Film Group

US distribution
TBD

International sales
Moonstone Entertainment

Producers
Chen Hong
Han Sanping
Etchie Stroh

Cinematography
Peter Pau

Production design
Tim Yip

Music
Klaus Badelt

Main cast
Hiroyuki Sanada
Jang Dong-Kun
Cecilia Cheung
Nicholas Tse
Liu Ye