Movie: 無極 (The Promise) by Chen Kaige
I just got back from watching Chen Kaige's fantasy epic movie 無極 (The Promise / Master of the Crimson Armour) by Chen Kaige (陈凯歌) which apparently just passed the RMB 100 million (US$12.38) mark on 22 December. I suspect this movie will make it to the West and it really is very gorgeous-looking and thought-provoking. While it's not the best movie I've ever seen, I definitely recommend watching it if you get the chance - there's something very mesmerising and haunting about it.
It's an extremely multi-national film. The director is Chen Kaige (陈凯歌) (Chinese) who directed movies like Yellow Earth, Life on a string, Farewell my Concubine, The Emperor and the Assassin and Together just to mention a few. The stars are Cecilia Cheung (张柏芝) (Hong Kong) as Princess Qing Cheng (倾城), Nicholas Tse (谢霆锋) (Hong Kong) as the Duke Wu Huan (无欢), Jang Dong Kun (张东健) (Korean) as the Slave Kun Lun (昆仑奴), the hugely talented Hiroyuki Sanada (真田广之) (Japanese) who portrays the tragic General Guangming (光明), Chen Hong (陈红) (Chinese) who portrays the eerie and morally ambiguous Goddess Man Shen (满神) and Liu Ye (刘烨) (Chinese) as the character 鬼狼 (Snow Wolf). The music is by German composer Klaus Badelt.
The film is very epic and while there is amazing scenery, battle scenes, gorgeous clothing and landscape, the film in essence is about 命运 (mìngyùn) - destiny/fate and the extent to which a person is able to alter his or her fate.
The film is set in ancient times and at its start, a young beggar girl pulls food from the hands of a dead soldier. She is surrounded by the dead on a battle field and pulls the boots off another dead soldier to pull onto her bare feet. A young boy wearing armour and a helmet leaps out to stop her, claiming that the bodies of the dead belong to his father's soldiers and that she should not desecrate them. They cut a deal, if she promises to become his slave, he will feed and clothe her. She agrees but then tricks him, injures him and runs away.
As she runs past a lake, she drops the bread into the water and while she is weeping, a goddess comes to her and returns the bread, telling her to eat it. The girl (whom we find out is Qing Cheng) refuses to eat, saying that it is for her mother. The goddess tells her that her mother has already died and she has nothing left in her life. The goddess then makes a 'deal' with the little girl. The goddess is willing to offer her beauty, riches and the love of every single man who encounters her. In exchange though, her happiness with the man can only ever be fleeting. She will never be able to have true love. This will be her fate until time flows backwards and the dead come to life again. Qing Cheng agrees and her choices affect the lives of all who encounter her.
All the actors speak in Mandarin and both Korean Zhang Dong Kun and Japanese Hiroyuki Sanada both learned Mandarin for this role and they are excellent. I was particularly impressed with Sanada's Mandarin - I have never heard a Japanese speak such standard Mandarin. I was almost drooling because his voice speaking Japanese is already very pleasant but speaking Mandarin it was wonderful! Yeah, I have a thing for accents, it's a bit sad.
Interestingly enough, it was only Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung who was dubbed because her voice is insufficiently strong and presumably her Cantonese accent is quite heavy. Nicholas Tse already speaks very good Mandarin (by the way, he's totally hot even without the excellent Mandarin ;).
Poor John the guy I went with had to put up with me swooning over both Nicholas Tse and Hiroyuki Sanada. Zhang Dong Kun is apparently the handsomest man in Korea and all the Asian girls I know adore him - but he does absolutely nothing for me. :) This results in a lot of grief for me.
I have adored Hiroyuki Sanada ever since I saw him in The Twilight Samurai. I'll digress for a moment to say that if you haven't seen The Twilight Samurai then you really should. alexandral has a wonderful review of it here and there's another review here and the link where you can buy it at amazon.com is here. It's a slow-paced movie but tells a story about the samurai that you almost never see. Previously when I thought about the samurai, I just thought about dramatic warriors with a blind zeal and honour. The Twilight Samurai is all about a poor and lowly samurai whose very beloved wife has just died leaving him with the care of their two young daughters. The story is about family, about his struggle to raise his two little girls in a world that is changing rapidly. It's just gorgeous and really sad. Hiroyuki Sanada is amazing in his portrayal and his face is so expressive. He's a brilliant actor - apparently he's also a Shakespearean actor which is impressive. I've never heard him speak English but he must be rather good!
Also, if you've seen the Tom Cruise blockbuster The Last Samurai he had a fairly significant role in that, too. Most people remember Ken Watanabe who played Katsumoto because one he has the main Japanese role and two he's a Japanese heart throb and totally hot when he has hair.
I tend to remember Katsumoto's right hand man Ujio (played by Sanada) who was the guy who taught Tom Cruise's character swordfighting. In real life, Sanada was also Cruise's Japanese language coach but I don't think we should blame Sanada for Cruise's rather bad Japanese .... Eww my ears. :)
The movie starts with Sanada's character, the heroic General Guang Ming who has never lost a battle. He is called the Master of the Crimson Armour for obvious reasons. In a battle in which he has 3,000 men and the other side has 20,000, he purchases a contingent of slaves intending to sacrifice them in the battle. Slaves have no lives or identity of their own. They crawl or creep, abasing themselves on the ground - they do not walk or stand upright.
Then, unexpectedly, Kunlun the Slave who is fleet of foot assists him to win the battle despite the almost impossible odds. Kunlun is from the Land of Snow where the people are so swift that they can almost fly.
Kunlun's former master has died so the General takes Kunlun on as his slave. Guangming is portrayed as arrogant, unscrupulous, heroic and fearless. His motives for taking Kunlun the Slave are for his own self-interest but Kunlun is grateful and it should be mentioned that Guang Ming definitely has a sympathetic side to him as well. I do not believe he is completely morally bankrupt. I also have to say, he is so not good-looking but there's something very intellectual and sensitive about his face - I find him Intellectually Hot. :D
Is there such a thing?? I've heard the phrase "The Thinking Woman's Crumpet" but I think I prefer 'Intellectually Hot'.
Guangming tells Kunlun the Slave: "I do not want you to bow or kneel for me - I want you to run for me".
Guangming is then summoned to rescue his king who is facing danger from the Duke Wuhuan. The Duke has the King and his wife Princess Qing Cheng captured. Things then become very complicated with everything revolving around the Princess Qing Cheng.
To be honest though, her role is rather Arthurian maiden - she is a catalyst, a reason and a cause but doesn't actually do much herself. Cecilia Cheung is very good in her limited role and certainly more beautiful than I have ever seen her but the acting is definitely stolen by the male actors in this film.
Qing Cheng and the Duke Wuhuan below:
The Duke Wuhuan:
Why do I like this film? The primary shortcoming is that some of the CGI is a little bit dodgy. Oddly enough it's when they show the great Imperial cities - they look sort of shiny and overly symetrical. For some reason the battle scenes, scenery, wild animal charges and things like that are very convincing but they can't make buildings and walls that look real.
I love the complexity of the characters. Kunlun the Slave is probably the most simple - he's overwhelmingly good, loyal and loving. With the others though - General Guangming, Duke Wuhuan, Princess Qingcheng and the Goddess, they all have shades of wickedness and cruelty and yet they have a sympathetic side. Even for the Evil Duke Wuhuan he has his reasons for what he does even if most people wouldn't think they were rational. General Guangming has been a merciless leader all his life, sacrificing innocent lives in pursuit of victory yet when he himself finally falls in love, his own life means nothing to him. Similarly, one doesn't know the motives of the Goddess and it's hard to judge Qing Cheng given that at the time she made the decision, she a starving child who could not have known the consequences of being a 'Helen of Troy' type character.
The film is also visually beautiful. The Duke Wuhuan after capturing the princess puts her in a large golden cage and makes her wear a cloak of white feathers. At one point, we see a very wildly fantastic shot of her soaring through the sky at the end of a string being pulled by Kunlun the Slave - I was very much reminded of the animated movie Howl's Moving Castle.
无极wújí actually means a mind completely devoid of worries, thought, or desires so the name "The Promise" refers to the decisions made at the start of the film. For my own part, I would have selected another name. I might have called it "The Deal" or "The Bargain" or perhaps even: "Fate". "The Promise" sounds romantic but for me, it wasn't really about promises.
I started reading the George RR Martin series A Song of Ice and Fire last night. It's really well-written and I was enjoying it at first but then after proceeding to a certain point and having gone and read all of queenofthorn's interesting posts on the character of Jaime Lannister, I decided that this was a series I with which I probably couldn't cope. Incest, treason, fratricide, attempted killing of 7 year old boys was just a little too much for me. I realise that history has a lot worse in it, I've read a lot worse and I have after all visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia and the Massacre Museum in Nanjing, but after reading what I did last night, I felt like I had to go and read something to cheer myself up and wash my brain. The character of Jaime Lannister appeared to be beyond redemption to me notwithstanding what I read defending him. It's possible that I might be able to try the books again when I'm in a different frame of mind, but for the time being - I think no.
What I liked about today's movie was that although the bad characters were .... bad bordering on evil, I was able to see motives even if I didn't agree with them and the possiblity of redemption was always there. The complexity of their goodness/badness/ambiguity was just so fascinating.
The movie should come out on dvd in a week or so. I suspect this is yet another movie that will do better in the West than it does in Asia. I very much enjoyed it simply because it was so thought-provoking and 'strange'. I can't wait to see the icons that alexandral and ginger001 will be able to create after they see it!!!
More about the movie here. You can see the trailer there, too.
PS: I'm so shallow. There were huge cardboard figures of the main characters in the foyer and John had to almost drag me out by my arm because I was lingering in front of Nicholas Tse's cut out :D
Amended: Click here to see all posts about 無極 (The Promise / Master of the Crimson Armour).
It's an extremely multi-national film. The director is Chen Kaige (陈凯歌) (Chinese) who directed movies like Yellow Earth, Life on a string, Farewell my Concubine, The Emperor and the Assassin and Together just to mention a few. The stars are Cecilia Cheung (张柏芝) (Hong Kong) as Princess Qing Cheng (倾城), Nicholas Tse (谢霆锋) (Hong Kong) as the Duke Wu Huan (无欢), Jang Dong Kun (张东健) (Korean) as the Slave Kun Lun (昆仑奴), the hugely talented Hiroyuki Sanada (真田广之) (Japanese) who portrays the tragic General Guangming (光明), Chen Hong (陈红) (Chinese) who portrays the eerie and morally ambiguous Goddess Man Shen (满神) and Liu Ye (刘烨) (Chinese) as the character 鬼狼 (Snow Wolf). The music is by German composer Klaus Badelt.
The film is very epic and while there is amazing scenery, battle scenes, gorgeous clothing and landscape, the film in essence is about 命运 (mìngyùn) - destiny/fate and the extent to which a person is able to alter his or her fate.
The film is set in ancient times and at its start, a young beggar girl pulls food from the hands of a dead soldier. She is surrounded by the dead on a battle field and pulls the boots off another dead soldier to pull onto her bare feet. A young boy wearing armour and a helmet leaps out to stop her, claiming that the bodies of the dead belong to his father's soldiers and that she should not desecrate them. They cut a deal, if she promises to become his slave, he will feed and clothe her. She agrees but then tricks him, injures him and runs away.
As she runs past a lake, she drops the bread into the water and while she is weeping, a goddess comes to her and returns the bread, telling her to eat it. The girl (whom we find out is Qing Cheng) refuses to eat, saying that it is for her mother. The goddess tells her that her mother has already died and she has nothing left in her life. The goddess then makes a 'deal' with the little girl. The goddess is willing to offer her beauty, riches and the love of every single man who encounters her. In exchange though, her happiness with the man can only ever be fleeting. She will never be able to have true love. This will be her fate until time flows backwards and the dead come to life again. Qing Cheng agrees and her choices affect the lives of all who encounter her.
All the actors speak in Mandarin and both Korean Zhang Dong Kun and Japanese Hiroyuki Sanada both learned Mandarin for this role and they are excellent. I was particularly impressed with Sanada's Mandarin - I have never heard a Japanese speak such standard Mandarin. I was almost drooling because his voice speaking Japanese is already very pleasant but speaking Mandarin it was wonderful! Yeah, I have a thing for accents, it's a bit sad.
Interestingly enough, it was only Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung who was dubbed because her voice is insufficiently strong and presumably her Cantonese accent is quite heavy. Nicholas Tse already speaks very good Mandarin (by the way, he's totally hot even without the excellent Mandarin ;).
Poor John the guy I went with had to put up with me swooning over both Nicholas Tse and Hiroyuki Sanada. Zhang Dong Kun is apparently the handsomest man in Korea and all the Asian girls I know adore him - but he does absolutely nothing for me. :) This results in a lot of grief for me.
I have adored Hiroyuki Sanada ever since I saw him in The Twilight Samurai. I'll digress for a moment to say that if you haven't seen The Twilight Samurai then you really should. alexandral has a wonderful review of it here and there's another review here and the link where you can buy it at amazon.com is here. It's a slow-paced movie but tells a story about the samurai that you almost never see. Previously when I thought about the samurai, I just thought about dramatic warriors with a blind zeal and honour. The Twilight Samurai is all about a poor and lowly samurai whose very beloved wife has just died leaving him with the care of their two young daughters. The story is about family, about his struggle to raise his two little girls in a world that is changing rapidly. It's just gorgeous and really sad. Hiroyuki Sanada is amazing in his portrayal and his face is so expressive. He's a brilliant actor - apparently he's also a Shakespearean actor which is impressive. I've never heard him speak English but he must be rather good!
Also, if you've seen the Tom Cruise blockbuster The Last Samurai he had a fairly significant role in that, too. Most people remember Ken Watanabe who played Katsumoto because one he has the main Japanese role and two he's a Japanese heart throb and totally hot when he has hair.
I tend to remember Katsumoto's right hand man Ujio (played by Sanada) who was the guy who taught Tom Cruise's character swordfighting. In real life, Sanada was also Cruise's Japanese language coach but I don't think we should blame Sanada for Cruise's rather bad Japanese .... Eww my ears. :)
The movie starts with Sanada's character, the heroic General Guang Ming who has never lost a battle. He is called the Master of the Crimson Armour for obvious reasons. In a battle in which he has 3,000 men and the other side has 20,000, he purchases a contingent of slaves intending to sacrifice them in the battle. Slaves have no lives or identity of their own. They crawl or creep, abasing themselves on the ground - they do not walk or stand upright.
Then, unexpectedly, Kunlun the Slave who is fleet of foot assists him to win the battle despite the almost impossible odds. Kunlun is from the Land of Snow where the people are so swift that they can almost fly.
Kunlun's former master has died so the General takes Kunlun on as his slave. Guangming is portrayed as arrogant, unscrupulous, heroic and fearless. His motives for taking Kunlun the Slave are for his own self-interest but Kunlun is grateful and it should be mentioned that Guang Ming definitely has a sympathetic side to him as well. I do not believe he is completely morally bankrupt. I also have to say, he is so not good-looking but there's something very intellectual and sensitive about his face - I find him Intellectually Hot. :D
Is there such a thing?? I've heard the phrase "The Thinking Woman's Crumpet" but I think I prefer 'Intellectually Hot'.
Guangming tells Kunlun the Slave: "I do not want you to bow or kneel for me - I want you to run for me".
Guangming is then summoned to rescue his king who is facing danger from the Duke Wuhuan. The Duke has the King and his wife Princess Qing Cheng captured. Things then become very complicated with everything revolving around the Princess Qing Cheng.
To be honest though, her role is rather Arthurian maiden - she is a catalyst, a reason and a cause but doesn't actually do much herself. Cecilia Cheung is very good in her limited role and certainly more beautiful than I have ever seen her but the acting is definitely stolen by the male actors in this film.
Qing Cheng and the Duke Wuhuan below:
The Duke Wuhuan:
Why do I like this film? The primary shortcoming is that some of the CGI is a little bit dodgy. Oddly enough it's when they show the great Imperial cities - they look sort of shiny and overly symetrical. For some reason the battle scenes, scenery, wild animal charges and things like that are very convincing but they can't make buildings and walls that look real.
I love the complexity of the characters. Kunlun the Slave is probably the most simple - he's overwhelmingly good, loyal and loving. With the others though - General Guangming, Duke Wuhuan, Princess Qingcheng and the Goddess, they all have shades of wickedness and cruelty and yet they have a sympathetic side. Even for the Evil Duke Wuhuan he has his reasons for what he does even if most people wouldn't think they were rational. General Guangming has been a merciless leader all his life, sacrificing innocent lives in pursuit of victory yet when he himself finally falls in love, his own life means nothing to him. Similarly, one doesn't know the motives of the Goddess and it's hard to judge Qing Cheng given that at the time she made the decision, she a starving child who could not have known the consequences of being a 'Helen of Troy' type character.
The film is also visually beautiful. The Duke Wuhuan after capturing the princess puts her in a large golden cage and makes her wear a cloak of white feathers. At one point, we see a very wildly fantastic shot of her soaring through the sky at the end of a string being pulled by Kunlun the Slave - I was very much reminded of the animated movie Howl's Moving Castle.
无极wújí actually means a mind completely devoid of worries, thought, or desires so the name "The Promise" refers to the decisions made at the start of the film. For my own part, I would have selected another name. I might have called it "The Deal" or "The Bargain" or perhaps even: "Fate". "The Promise" sounds romantic but for me, it wasn't really about promises.
I started reading the George RR Martin series A Song of Ice and Fire last night. It's really well-written and I was enjoying it at first but then after proceeding to a certain point and having gone and read all of queenofthorn's interesting posts on the character of Jaime Lannister, I decided that this was a series I with which I probably couldn't cope. Incest, treason, fratricide, attempted killing of 7 year old boys was just a little too much for me. I realise that history has a lot worse in it, I've read a lot worse and I have after all visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia and the Massacre Museum in Nanjing, but after reading what I did last night, I felt like I had to go and read something to cheer myself up and wash my brain. The character of Jaime Lannister appeared to be beyond redemption to me notwithstanding what I read defending him. It's possible that I might be able to try the books again when I'm in a different frame of mind, but for the time being - I think no.
What I liked about today's movie was that although the bad characters were .... bad bordering on evil, I was able to see motives even if I didn't agree with them and the possiblity of redemption was always there. The complexity of their goodness/badness/ambiguity was just so fascinating.
The movie should come out on dvd in a week or so. I suspect this is yet another movie that will do better in the West than it does in Asia. I very much enjoyed it simply because it was so thought-provoking and 'strange'. I can't wait to see the icons that alexandral and ginger001 will be able to create after they see it!!!
More about the movie here. You can see the trailer there, too.
PS: I'm so shallow. There were huge cardboard figures of the main characters in the foyer and John had to almost drag me out by my arm because I was lingering in front of Nicholas Tse's cut out :D
Amended: Click here to see all posts about 無極 (The Promise / Master of the Crimson Armour).