Promise Me This

The Promise is a mushy-brained cartoon head-rush of a film, all whirling color and wooshing action—but not much else. The most expensive film ever produced in China, it is suitably beautiful—at times entrancingly elegant—but the story is as thin and surface as a children’s tale. Martial arts junkies may be disappointed by the film’s somewhat modest setpieces; nothing here approaches the artful, kinetic violence of Crouching Tiger, Hero, or House of Flying Daggers. But those hankering for a candy-coated dose of period splendor will find much to enjoy in this exquisitely painted picturebook of a movie.