2005 · fantasy · action · epic
The Promise
Directed by Chen Kaige2h 1m2005
An orphaned girl, driven by poverty at such a young age, makes a promise with an enchantress. In return for beauty and the admiration of every man, she will never be with the man she loves. This spell cannot be broken unless the impossible happens: snow falling in spring and the dead coming back to life. Now a grown and beautiful princess, she regrets her promise, for all of the men she's loved has always been met with tragedy.
Our read: The Promise (2005) reads as a neutral, breathless, surreal fantasy · action · epic entry — measured in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Neutral, breathless, measured fantasy / action, surreal in texture. Ambivalent, epic, measured.
- kinetic
- intense
- inventive
Watching The Promise tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
Availability in the US · via JustWatch
More info & search links
How The Promise feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want lush Chinese fantasy romance with curse-driven sacrifice and swordplay spectacle.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if epic subtitles, fairy-tale curses, or Chen Kaige melodrama feel too grand tonight.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like The Promise, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →