The Promise

On Sunday a friend of ours organized a trip to see the new Chinese movie The Promise. Reviews for the movie were mixed, but since it looked so beautiful we were excited to see it for ourselves. I was definitely not disappointed. Costumes, sets, cinematography, actors- everything was lovely in the extreme. Add to that, it was a fairytale, and you have something I enjoyed very much. My particular favorites were the sea goddess (be sure to notice her floating crown) and the fighting scene around the bird screens (if you see the movie you'll know what I mean). Some people complained that the computer-generated graphics were not convincing, but I really was not bothered much about that. Some reviewers actually complained that the fighting and some other elements were not realistic enough which I thought was pretty laughable. You would think the frequent use of magic and the superhuman strength would tip people off to the fact that the story is supposed to be just a wee bit outside the normal boundaries of reality.