Curse of the Golden Flower

Me and my girlfriend watched this in Guangzhou, China. It isn't exactly a feel-good movie..

It's hard to describe what this film does, without spoiling the movie. And that structure is it's strength. Suffice to say, this is a very strongly woven movie, a movie where direction and production are the stars.

And that is also "Curse of the golden flower"'s weakness. This is, after all, a movie. Moviegoers are used to seeing the full spectrum of a movie; varied scenery and ambiance, multiple stories, realistic characters, a realistic society portrait, and so on. Certainly, this movie has strong characters, but like the imperial court setting, they are puppets. They never change their directions, they are forced to play the drama. Most of the action happens on the same 3-4 scenes, with the same characters. Like an opera; stereotypic, but intensely dramatic and glorious.

That said, this movie had an effect on me, and as mentioned, it is very well crafted. Without a doubt, it shows Yimou Zhang's skills in his profession, and I do recommend it. But don't expect a "movie" in the classical sense, expect Greek tragedy or opera-style drama.

Chinese filmmakers have a double curse. They have this tradition where individuals only matter in context, so when there is a spat between a man and his wife, it can only be illustrated in large sweeps of society. This is compounded by the ability to marshal (real, human) extras and extravagant sets on a scale unmatchable anywhere else.

I liked this filmmaker's earlier projects. "To Live" really was able to show the inside of a man by mapping it to lurches and sweeps in the world around him. "Daggers" was at least a masterpiece of ballet. And "Hero," probably my favorite, was the most cinematic, expressing real human qualities in luxurious cinematic terms. Who can forget the spatial existence of discovered deceit in the flickering flames in front of the throne?

This is a wholly different formula in how the internals of a family sweep into the environment. The setup is an extraordinary web of relationships between two families. Some commentors think this is drawn from soap opera, but I think they have a common ancestor instead. This is Greek, and though on daytime TeeVee you will get similar relationship complexities, they will have their tethers to the cosmos broken. They will be single souls adrift in the world.

These are souls that command the world, apparently. It could have worked.

Why it didn't I think is because the filmmaker decided to root himself in the magisterial. It probably was influenced by the fact that he is a former lover of the female star and there are some reflections between that situation and what we see. Its "Annie Hall" with flying ninjas instead of lobsters. Breasts instead of the swirling of engagement. Narrative mistrust where Woody had open exploration and experimentation. Diane and Woody were in a place, a city that colored them. These characters here ARE the city.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

First of all, this is a commercial movie of period drama with some sort of martial arts in it. If you're looking for anything deeper, then it's not for you although the movie is loosely based on a masterpiece of play in China.

That being said, I think it's actually a nice movie.

Story: B The story line is nothing amazing but flows well although not devoid of a few confusions or loopholes. For the people who're not familiar with all the power struggle, backstabbing stories of Chinese royal families, some relationships and emotions may seem a bit too much. And it did actually get a bit overheated at certain point possibly for theatrical tensions. But overall, it made sense to me. My major complaint is that he could have cut out some of the side stories while allowing the major line to a fuller development.

Acting: B+ This movie focuses on Gong Li and she's a good actress. So, yes, she did a great job even though I wish it could have been toned down a bit. Chow Yun-fat is also good but his role is not as rich as hers. Liu Ye (crown prince) is adequate for his role and the character also has a limited range. Jay Zhou (the second son)is not quite up to par with the others (after all, he's not a professional actor). But he got better in the end.

Visuals: A- Actually, I wanted to give it a B+ but I awarded it a higher mark for being so daring. It does have tons of colors and shades in it. Most of time, they actually work out cool, at least for me. But I totally understand if someone finds it way over-the-top. I actually like the fact that ZYM used bright colors, only if he had used fewer kinds of them. Those fighting scenes didn't quite catch my attention not because they're no good. Actually they're proper and effective. But since I've seem so many martial arts movies, they did not bring any surprises to me

Overall, it's an entertaining movie with an understandable story and believable characters.

I had the pleasure of seeing this film with special personal appearances by Zhang Yimou and Gong Li... I have to say I was blown away by it! I was not expecting a story with such depth...The cinematography, the art direction, and the sheer enormity of the visuals were staggering. Great sword work... exquisite wire sequences... and HUGE battles - but all done with an intensity that's stunning. And even more, the acting was superb - Chow Yung Fat is a master, and his scenes together with Gong Li are beautifully emotional. Gong Li is more beautiful than ever in a role that demands huge range from the first scene and never lets up... She does her best work ever! I have nothing but praise for this film. I can't wait to see it again.

This is a highly charged docudrama epic, instead of the gladiator/hero-ish action flick its marketing led people to believe. With that said, this is a very gripping film, almost to the point of eerie realism, for those of us who are familiar with ancient royal family politics. Betrayal, back-stabbing, assassination, adultery, family tragedy,... everything that could go wrong in the the royal court happened, and were woven in a way that made the complicated plot that much more involving. More than once, I felt real tangible emotions as events with each character/turning point deepens the tragedy. The one aspect I don't like was the intensity of this film... its almost like watching films the likes of Saving Private Ryan... more like a stressful experience than simple entertainment.

However, if you go in expecting extravagant sword fights, kung-fu, battles, you are going to be disappointed.