Curse of the Golden Flower

After a series of cheap B-films I was in a mood for something different, and what is better than a HK/Chinese epic starring Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li and Jay Chou and directed by the great Zhang Yimou - "Curse of the Golden Flower" (original title: "Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia")?

10th century, the rule of the Tang Dynasty. The Emperor has just returned to the Forbidden City with his son Jai from a 3 year long war campaign. Although he is seemingly greeted with joy and warmth, what is going on behind the scenes is quite the opposite. His older son from the first marriage is having an affair with the Empress, his stepmother, while being in love with the palace doctor’s daughter. And that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as schemes & secrets are concerned.

Usually, when you hear the words China, historical epic you think of flying Chinese and massive armies Dynasty Warriors style. Well, “Curse of the Golden Flower” is not that. It’s a character driven drama. Out of the 111 minutes of runtime, 90 is character development and the rest is action. I was in the mood for something like that, after almost a month of watching no brainers. Even the action parts are not over the top and keep it within realistic boundaries (as much as possible, at least).

The cast is superb, led by the awesome Chow Yun-Fat and the talented (and beautiful) Gong Li, as the Emperor and the Empress respectively. Visually the film is also beautiful with all of its fancy costumes and sets which never stop to amaze me. No wonder it was nominated for the Oscar award for best costume design.

This is certainly not Zhang Yimou’s best work, but it is a great tale of honesty, respect, love and betrayal (which is the case with every similar HK film), superbly acted aided by breathtaking visuals. The moral? Don’t’ fuck with Chow Yun-Fat.

Rating: 8/10

- review by Ventilation Shaft