The Promise US trailer and Murder Caused by Bread

by Chris   ⋅   March 24, 2006   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

The US trailer for The Promise (aka:Wu Ji), Chen Kaige’s latest picture has finally hit the web, complete with a quote from LA Times critic Kevin Thomas, praising the film as one of the most beautiful things to hit the screen. Well, the film is pretty, but not much more than that. Chen Kaige, having come to the realization that most audiences these days don’t respond well to films with political or social critques, set out to make a pure action picture, in the mold of his former cameraman Zhang Yimou. The result is watchable piece of fluff, with pretty people doing impressive things. It’s quite silly, but no more silly than the average Superhero picture released here in the US.

But then again, I’ve only watched the film from my Western viewpoint, and without it’s native hype.

The film, being China’s most expensive production ever, had been touted as the picture that would raise the bar for Chinese cinema to brand new heights. It was supposed to be amazing. Powerful. A wonder to behold. Once released, however, Kaige’s picture was seenfor what it is. A Computer Effects laden actioner in the mold of every US throwaway summer film. As one can expect, it was met with a less than stellar reception by the Chinese public. In fact, most Chinese viewers have expressed responses much harsher than this site’s review for Kill Bill. Which brings me to a spoof of the film called A Murder Caused by a Mantou. Mantou is a type of steamed bread, and if you’ve seen The Promise, you’d know that the Mantou plays a part in the opening sequence with the little orphan girl.

I’ll cover the overall story synopsis in my review later in the week, but to make a long story short, this scene involves an orphan girl with a freshly stolen Mantou. The girl, setting down to eath the pilfered bread, encounters a goddess. The sight of the goddess is such a shock the littler girl drops the bread into the water. The goddess says not to worry about the bread, that if the girl is willing, she will grant her everything her heart desires for the rest of her life. The only catch is she will not be allowed to keep any man she falls in love with. The girl gladly accepts, and thus ensures all the hardships she will encounter later in the story.

Edited on a home computer from a bootlegged version of the film, and set to Matrix music by Juno Reactor, A Murder Caused by Mantou revolves around this point, claiming that by taking the bread, and accepting the goddess’s offer, the little girl is directly responsible for the death encountered in the film. A further synopsis of Mantou, can be found in this article by the Christian Science Monitor.

One could correctly argue that the Mantou short is far more popular than Kaige’s film, as the video has been traded all over the Chinese internet. Kaige on the other hand has not seen the humor in the spoof, and is currently suing its creator There’s no word as to whether legislation will force this clip to be taken off the net, but you can see A Murder Caused by a Mantou click here. Note that the video does not have English subtitles. Though it is funny without, you may want to go here and start working on your Chinese :)

Related Articles

• No Related Post