The Promise 2005

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The Promise ★½ Wu Ji; Master of the Crimson Armor 2005 (PG-13)

Complicated and stylized martial arts fantasy in which a young orphan is offered a life of riches by a goddess (Hong) with the caveat that she will lose every man she loves. Qingcheng (Cheung) lives with her bargain until she falls for General Guangming (Sanada), he of the crimson armor. Except it was his slave, Kunlun (DongGun), who was wearing the armor and actually rescued the princess. Never really makes any sense (at least to Westerners). Mandarin with subtitles; also released at 121 minutes. 103m/C DVD . CH US Hiroyuki (Henry) Sanada, DongKun Jang, Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Liu Yeh, Chen Hong, Qian Bo, Yu Xiaowei, Cheng Qian; D: Chen Kaige, Zhang Tan; W: Chen Kaige; C: Peter Pau; M: Klaus Badelt.