Xu Wei/Shanghai Daily news

Legendary Chinese film director Chen Kaige may have risen to fame with critically acclaimed art-house movies "Farewell My Concubine" and "The Yellow Earth," but his new film, "The Promise" shows that the award-winning director can make commercial blockbusters, too.
 A fantasy epic of fate, love, swords and sorcery set 3,000 years ago, "The Promise" is the story of a princess (Cecilia Cheung), and the three men who love her: a dark duke (Nicholas Tse), a proud general (Hiroyuki Sanada), who changed the course of her life and a slave (Jang Dong-gun).
It is not your classic fairytale, however.
"My characters are never simplistically stereotyped," says Chen. "There are no 'good guys' and 'bad guys.' Each one is complex, with complicated emotions and multi-faceted personalities. I want the audience to think about this, what we live for and how we can be better."
This is a big movie: The epic film took an epic to make. Chen trekked around China - 10,120 kilometers and 1,019 days - and speaks mournfully of missing three years of his sons' life. (Still, the movie was a family affair - actress wife Chen Hong was the producer.) In addition, the 340-million-yuan (US$41.9 million) saga is the most expensive Chinese film ever made, surpassing Zhang Yimou's US$30 million "Hero." The A-List cast comes from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.
"Three years means a lot to anyone's life," says the 53-year-old director. "To me it is a rewarding, but also painful, experience. It's hard to imagine how much I have got and lost from that."
Chen jokingly compares the film to "the third son of mine," but regrets the little time he spent with his sons in the past three years. "After the shooting, I suddenly found they were growing up at an amazing speed," he groans.
Expectations, therefore, are suitably high: There is hope that "The Promise" will be nominated - and perhaps win - Best Foreign Language Film at the 2006 Academy Awards, which would make it only the second film in Chinese history to win an Oscar (the first was Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2001). The film is already a Best Foreign Language Film nominee for the Golden Globe Awards, which precedes the Academy Awards.
Born 1952 in Beijing, Chen is the son of veteran filmmaker Chen Huaiai, who directed a number of popular films during the 1950s and 1960s, such as "Song of Youth" (1959).
Chen Kaige entered the Beijing Film Academy in 1978, studying directing with Zhang and Tian Zhuangzhuang, two of the best-known names in Chinese film industry, who later became the core of the fifth-generation Chinese directors.
Chen's directorial debut, "The Yellow Earth," (1984) in collaboration with Zhang as cinematographer, first stunned critics and audiences at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 1985 and was awarded prizes in film festivals from London to Hawaii. The detached tone, measured pace and gorgeous visuals of this movie also brought worldwide attention to the changing face of Chinese cinema.
Chen's later works (including "The Big Parade," (1986), "King of the Children" (1987) and "Life on a String" (1991)) didn't receive the same attention, at least not until he made the landmark "Farewell My Concubine" (1993).
Starring Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li and the late Hong Kong pop singer/actor Leslie Cheung, the film centers on the tragic love between two Peking Opera performers, showcasing Chen's talent for storytelling in an artistic and sentimental way. The film won Chen a joint Palme d'Or (with "The Piano") at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination.
"'Farewell My Concubine' was my expression of love for the vanishing charm and cultures of old Beijing," Chen notes.
He acknowledges the charm and power of his films, attributing them to the love and dreams he conveys in them. Yet despite the critical acclaim for much of the work, Chen has not been a major box office success.  This time, though, he appears to have taken a much more commercial tack.
The movie itself is rife with the building blocks of commercial success: love, war, conspiracy, a period setting and high-tech audio visuals. To hear Chen tell it, it's a matter of national pride: "Chinese filmmakers can create mega-productions equal to Hollywood blockbusters. My goal is to attract a greater number of Chinese to theaters to see recreational home-grown pictures."
And to buy all the surrounding paraphernalia, as well. Before the national release of "The Promise" on Thursday, Chen and his assistants had already begun high-profile promotions, including developing an array of the film's byproducts - a computer game, a book, stamps, toys and a blog Website.
"In addition to the artistry of films, marketing is another thing that a filmmaker should always bear in mind," Chen says, perhaps mindful of his previous failure in this area.
The marketing seems to have worked on local cinemas, who are optimistic about the movie's box office returns.
Li Lan, manager of Paradise Warner Cinema City, anticipates the film will be a boost for the holiday box office. "The ideal screening time across Christmas and New Year, the fame of the director and the recreational elements would seem to be guarantees for success."
Critics, however, are not as easily swayed. Although some viewers call it "impressive and beautiful," others complain that there are no surprise.
"Compared with Zhang's 'Hero' and 'House of Flying Daggers,' I don't think 'The Promise' has any breakthroughs," says Yu Ye, a 20-something audience member. "The storyline is weak, and it's difficult to impress audiences today with only stunts and visual effects."
Local movie buff Wang Tao is downright unimpressed: "The plot of the movie is so blank and strange. Chen's own original style is lost in the movie."
Chen may lose some of fans of his early work with this movie, but his hope is that       he will gain much more: the development of the Chinese film industry, which is still         in its infancy.
"We have an enormous potential as a film market. We can fulfill it by attracting more people to the cinema with blockbusters like this," he explains. "Once the market matures, then we can diversify with other genres, such as art-house movies."
Like his characters, it seems that Chen can't be stereotyped.

Chen Kaige's filmography
2005 "The Promise"
2002 "Together"
2002 "Ten Minutes Older" (segment: "100 Flowers Hidden Deep")
2002 "Killing Me Softly"
1999 "The Emperor and the Assassin"
1996 "Temptress Moon"
1993 "Farewell My Concubine"
1991 "Life on a String"
1987 "King of the Children"
1986 "The Big Parade"
1984 "The Yellow Earth"

Chinese movies up for Best Foreign Language Movie at Academy Awards
"The Promise" by Chen Kaige (2006)
"Hero" by Zhang Yimou (2003)
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" by Ang Lee (2001 winner)
"Eat Drink Man Woman" by Ang Lee (1995)
"The Wedding Banquet" by Ang Lee (1994)
"Farewell My Concubine" by Chen Kaige (1993)
"Raise the Red Lantern" by Zhang Yimou (1991)
"Ju Dou" by Zhang Yimou (1990)