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as a fairy tale does'Promise' reach its potential  With a budget
of $35 million, Chen Kaige's ''The Promise" is the most
expensive film ever made in China. When it was released there in
December, advance publicity trumpeted the lavish historical
action film as a national treasure. Millions of people bought
tickets -- and millions of people came away feeling burned. By
January, the backlash was in full swing, and when Chen
(''Farewell My Concubine") got huffy about a popular Internet
parody of his film, just about everyone sided with the Web guy.
Now ''The Promise" arrives in US theaters, and even as you feel
its home audience's pain, it's easy to accept the movie as
delirious eye candy. Colorful, swooningly emotional, often
ridiculous, ''Promise" is a road-show version of movies like
''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and ''House of Flying
Daggers." Along with ''Dagger," it suggests that talented
Chinese directors are being led astray by the sed