Curse of the Golden Flower (short review)

[zuludelta]

Well, finally went and saw this film... I'm basically trying to catch up with all the major movies I missed over the past couple of years (I think I'm up to 2006 in terms of seeing a good number of significant Oscar-nominated pictures).

On a technical level, Zhang Yimou's imperial Chinese drama is more than impressive. However, it almost falls into overindulgence after a while. When every scene is constructed as to be a visual feast, a viewer can get desensitized after a while. I know my eyes were aching about two-thirds of the way through from the hyper-saturated reds and yellows that dominated most of the scenes. This is one film where you can't accuse the director of not having a singular vision.

The story revolves around the intricate machinations of a Tang Dynasty empress (played by Gong Li) and her attempt to wrest the throne from the emperor (Chow Yun-Fat). Zhang Yimou and the other screenwriters do their best to do a Greek/Shakespeare-style tragedy, and for the most part, they succeed in showing us that incest, treachery, and all sorts of internecine conflict isn't the sole province of English royalty  :lol:. If you've always wondered what King Lear and Oedipus Rex would be like if they had Chinese proto-ninjas and wire-fu, this movie is definitely for you. There are any number of ways you can interpret the story (as any film released with the blessing of the Chinese government is apt to be analyzed for political subtexts), but in the end, it's a straight up classic Western tragedy in terms of structure with nods to traditional Chinese morality (there's an emphasis on the big ones like filial piety, loyalty, and the all-too-familiar, to me at least, "natural law") whether or not it sets out to convey a certain political message, I'll leave it to those with more time on their hands to decide.   

The performances were okay... nothing outstanding in my opinion, but again, I bring up the Shakespeare comparison: there's a certain expectation on my part when watching period films or stage plays in that I almost always expect that the acting be as stylized as the setting, and this film fulfills that expectation. I will admit, though, that seeing Gong Li and Man Li practically falling out of their tight corsets in every scene was mighty distracting... I think I've found a new wallpaper  :lol:

Anyways, I've never been a big fan of screen epics myself, but at least this one was of a reasonable length (it's considerably a lot shorter than a previous Imperial China epic starring the gorgeous Gong Li, The Emperor and the Assassin, which ran into 3-hour territory), and doesn't really require any prior knowledge of Chinese history to appreciate (the story could have been easily transplanted onto any other culture and era and it would have probably stayed the same). I'd say it's a worthy rental (or a cheap buy if you can find it at a bargain bin), but I found it to be an ultimately unsatisfying cinematic experience. Great visuals, but not much more to it than that.     

[lugaru]

I agree. For me it is an great movie that needed some editing to trip it up and keep up the pace. Like on paper it sounds great (amazing visuals, huge fights, court intrige) but on screen well not so much.

[Ajax]

Moral of the story: Don't mess with the guy with the ninja army.

[Midnight]

I had roughly the same reaction seeing it over the summer. Very pretty, not so compelling.

[Jakew]

1) gorgeous film

2) ninjas are cool