Chen Kaige, The Promise

Chen Kaige came to prominence alongside Zhang Yimou (Ju Dou) in the early 1990s as one of a group of Fifth Generation mainland Chinese directors. His Farewell My Concubine was the first Asian film to win the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or as well as be an Oscar nominee and a Golden Globe winner. While he made one English-language film in London, Kaige continues to work in China. His newest feature The Promise, a Golden Globe nominee this year for Best Foreign Language Film, is an epic $31 million fantasy, the most expensive yet filmed in China. In fluent English, Kaige explains how he was inspired to write Promise, what it means in today's world and how he views it against Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

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