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For starters,
I loved The Promise.
Yeah, the graphics are awful, those bulls are ridiculous. As
for the colors being garish, I had to watch it on a portable, region free DVD player because the player hooked up to my TV is not region free.
So the colors on an 8 inch screen were not a problem.
There are a couple of tear-jerk scenes and I’m still a bit sad after watching.
The music score is haunting.
Hiro had a chance to show-off his stuff. He gets to use “those eyes” more than once.
Maybe not as great as in Story of Love or Unmarried Family, but it was there.
Unfortunately, the camera work did not take advantage of close-up shots when sometimes it should have been done.
He was mean, arrogant, incredibly sad (building the box around the cherry tree to stop the blossoms from blowing off, where he cries for the
Princess saying “The sun is setting", the part where he realizes his ego allowed the Duke to trick him and also capture the Princess again, and his trial)
And funny -- in a good way. He jokes around with the Princess and the
slave. I even like his stomping around and asking the Princess how
dare she leave him. I thought he was funny early in the film when he tells Kunlun he wants him as his slave.
He throws his helmet around and sits on the rock like a big shot.
The drinking scene is a hoot.
Anyone who likes Hiro with long hair and period clothing should like him here.
The pink and white robe he wears in much of the movie is awesome.
The General felt little like Ujio and a little like Seibei.
I liked Dong-Kun Jang’s slave performance. He loved the Princess and his master.
Because Kunlun loved her too, he had compassion for the General’s predicament.
(The end where he tells the Princess to go to the dying General
saying, "he is waiting for you", broke my heart for all of them).
Always the slave, serving others first. After all, at that point he was wounded, too.
Regarding previous discussions about laughter in the theaters, I
laughed at some of the General’s antics.
He stomps and he is pompous. He has a funny line in the drinking scene.
Kunlun went away at the General’s order and the Princess has run off.
So, upon Kunlun’s return the General says something like “well, the one who should return has not and the one who should not arrives”
It's funny because he is drunk, terribly sad and his ego is wounded.
Yeah, and I could see that people would find the Duke's golden hand a bit absurd.
But he was an over the top kind of guy! I noticed he often used it to touch people as though he did not want the human contact.
As to some of the discussions about the Duke and his “interest in the General”
I don’t see that. I see the Duke as a jealous man.
I did feel a little sorry for him when he told the Princess that she was the first to lie to him. (I knew that boy from the beginning of the film would turn up again).
And, with that, his destiny was set to never trust in anyone or be trustworthy himself.
He is a bit of a "dandy" an English word that does not necessarily
mean gay but more like self-absorbed and prissy - He certainly dressed the part and made comments about the General's pink and white robes.
I can put up with lots of weird fantasy time travel, flying
etc., but I wanted to know more about the Land of Snow. What was so important – other than the slave being one and the Duke killing them off.
I kept waiting for Snow Wolf and Kunlun to be blood-related or something.
Why were the Snow People so fast?
This version had the love scene, but even better is the little kiss when the Princess goes to the General’s room to tell him "sleep well".
She asks for a kiss. She leaves his room, he follows her part way back to her chambers and, as she closes her door, he gives the cutest little head movement and smile –
That’s when you know he’s hooked on her.
All in all, I guess I was most drawn to the love triangle and how these three would be hurt.
The General and Princess both with the truth. Kunlun without the truth.
And, from the reaction of the Princess to the General’s death scene,
I have to say she loved them both.
The General moves from an egomaniac who never loses, to accepting death to protect the love she feels for him and
I think to protect himself if she were to learn that he lied.
Or maybe just because he knows his lie will be revealed. Besides, as predicted, he has lost everything.
If I was following correctly during his trial, he called it (killing the King for her, a lie of course, and his sentence to death) his greatest victory.
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(The following
is commentary made in response to things that Reiko has written
into the SHIN forum. Reiko's comments are in red and
Mary's are in gold.)
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I felt like snow wolf loved kunlun. (not sexually)
I agree, that’s why I wanted to know more about their background.
I felt like the duke was JEALOUS of the general (for power) and wanted REVENGE on the
princess, since childhood.
And something more than power, can’t put my finger on it,
um -- admiration of the people which, in the Duke's mind, is something akin to love of the
people. He was probably pretty lonely since he could not trust others so love could be a big motivator, he craved it!
I felt the general experienced personal transformation through love for the princess. (Although
I do agree, not a lot of chemistry!)
He almost overcame his ego to stay at his home with her.
... and I felt EASILY that Kunlun loved the princess.
Especially in that he almost never told her the truth.
I also wonder if maybe the TRANSLATIONS were modified in the
U.S. version. As I mentioned... only in the second viewing, was there a bit of laughter when the general was trying to decide about going back with his soldiers.
But because hiro payed it up... like "Oh, my woman is gonna be MAD at
me!" (And she WAS)
I thought it funny because the General was also battling his own demon, his ego.
His men tell him they have missed him like a father (in the translation).
He comes close to begging her to give her OK when he says
"What if it was something I really wanted. Come with me".
... because, really, the GENERAL'S transformation is NOT fully understood or developed.
It is why, even being a HUGE Hiro fan... I COULD NOT FEEL for the general the way
I could for the slave.
You did not feel for the General because
of the cuts in American version? The drinking part and waiting for her to return to him broke my heart, he really loves her and his ego is damaged.
In your version does he not run up on the roof of his home, crying that the sun is setting?
You could not have forgotten that.
Rei, did the American version have this:
General brings her to his house (she is still in the feather
robe). He kisses her and tells her she will fall in love with
him. They joke a bit, she keeps looking at the helmet, raising and lowering the golden face
mask. You can tell right then she feels something is OFF,
but she ends up asking for a kiss later that night. She leaves his
room and then the next day she runs off. He chases
her and is pissed that she could leave after kissing him.
He orders Kunlun to kill her. When Kunlun refuses the General ends up sending him away. The General gives her his horse to speed up her return and tells her she
will be back before sunset the day the last cherry blossom falls.
[THIS IS CRITICAL TO HIS LOVE and brings on the drinking scene
and the making of the box around the tree to keep in the blossoms.
Once you see these pieces it will make all the difference.]
After leaving for a short time, Kunlun returns and sees the misery of the General
(drinking and CRYING). Kunlun helps return the General to the day the Princess left, this is where she gets down off his horse and professes her love.
The General is visibly moved and whispers to himself that he will have her.
Then the love scene takes place and the scenes around the General’s
home, such as playing in the hay etc. Much of this is in the 11 minute trailer.
Just without the dialog.
Then some of the General’s men come to ask forgiveness, this is a ploy to get the armor and the two lovers.
Now for the ending in this version. Kunlun pulls up a wall of water around the courtyard
and then tells the Princess he will take her back in time so that she may chose again. They fly off. THE END.
(Where is the choice/decision? -- After watching a second time, it must be when Kunlun has rescued her from the
cage. First she
flies as a kite, then they are running down the long hall and here comes the General on his
horse. The Princess reaches up to go with him rather than Kunlun and this is the second time the slave has saved
her.)
Now what was that. Earlier in the movie Kunlun and Snow Wolf are behind a similar wall of water and Snow Wolf tells Kunlun that he cannot change the past.
Oh well, maybe on a third viewing
I will better understand the end.
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If after
reading this review, you would like to participate in further
discussion, to add comments or ask questions, etc., feel free to
visit the "General Sanadasan Discussions" area in the
SHIN Forum. (Click Forum link above.)
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