Customer Reviews

Curse of the Golden Flower [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Emperor Ping returns to his palace just before the Chong Young Festival. The Empress Phoenix, his wife, is far from happy to see his return. Ping has ordered his imperial doctor to slowly poison the empress. And, in retaliation, the Empress conspires to overthrow her husband. As hatreds fester and secret passions come to light, no one will remain untouched by the Curse of the Golden Flower.

The Director Yimou Zhang follows up House of Flying Daggers and Hero with his most lavish epic yet. Curse of the Golden Flower is an extraordinary film. It is a big-budget extravaganza that is reminiscent of some of the Hollywood epics of the fifties and sixties. As with all Zhang's western exports, his use of colour is incredible. The palace of Emperor Ping is brought to the screen in a blaze of arresting colour. Every costume and set create a world of sumptuous majesty a world that you will be immediately drawn into.

Of course, like all Asian Cinema, this film has the usual martial arts set pieces throughout, but it does not seem to rely on them to keep the audience interested. Instead, the film uses a complex plot involving the power struggle between the two leads. Chow Yun Fat, as Ping, presents a character who is ruthless and dogmatic, and Gong Li's Empress Phoenix is vulnerable and defiant. Both stars' perfomances are beyond reproach, and all of these qualities come together to create a gloriously opulent saga.

The Curse of the Golden Flower is an epic filled with intrigue and breathtakingly-bloody battle scenes, all set against a backdrop of radiantly decadent colour. If you liked Flying Daggers and Hero, you will adore the Curse of the Golden Flower.

A thoroughly enjoyable film, and definitely a high class piece of work. Along the lines of Crouching Tiger, The Banquet (Legend of the Black Scorpion), Warriors Of Heaven And Earth, The Promise, Hero etc.

Zhang's "Curse Of The Golden Flower" is a grandiose spectacle...a fable for the eyes and ears to enjoy. Unfortunately, for me, that's ALL this film is. It's like a beautiful sunset or a wonderful aroma. It is what it is, and offers little more.

Once you have watched this film you will automatically notice the lack of character development through out this story. You simply cannot tell such an intriguing story without letting the audience in and having them care deeply for your players. The only character, who I really felt had any depth here, was Prince Jai; and even that could've been much deeper. The color palette of this film is not the only thing I have problem with this film. The costumes in the movie seem like somebody mixed up the woman's Chinese imperial costumes with the woman's European royal costumes of the 15th century. I have never seen so much cleavage in a Chinese film! As gorgeous as they are they did seem a little too force.

I love Zhang. I think he's a genius and his body of work proves this, so maybe that added to my disappointment. I had very high expectations...Chow Yun Fat...Gong Li...How can it miss? Well it missed. It almost felt rushed...Like it should've been a 4-hour epic. I think that's what it would've taken to really tell this as it should've been told. It's hard to explain; and the film is so gorgeous that its even hard to think that it would need that much added to it, but in my opinion it did.

The story, from what I understand, comes from old Chinese text. It is a brilliant tale of an empire, and its first family. I really cannot get into detail anymore than that without spoiling anything. Jist? The emperor is coming home to his palace, and so is Jai, one of his sons. Living there with their mother, are his other two sons, the crown Prince (the oldest of the three??) and Prince Cheng; the youngest of the three. Emperor Ping is a ruthless leader, and leads his family in the same fashion. Backstabbing, plotting, love and hate are all present here. It could've been so much more. At any rate, I would recommended this to those who want to treat themselves to a visual feast for the eyes.

I read in another review that if you liked "Flying Daggers"
and "Hero", you will adore this one.
Well, that is only true if all you watched the other 2 for,
was the love story.

But if you watched the other 2 for the martial arts,
then SKIP this one.

I only bought this movie because it was from the director of
"Flying Daggers" and "Hero" and was advertised as a martial
arts movie.
IT IS NOT!! Sword play does not make a movie a "Martial Arts"
movie. Not in my book!

I only watched it once and because it had no real martial arts
in it, i never saw it again. But if i remember correctly, it did
have a couple of sword play scenes.

If you like dramatic love stories, then it's worth the .99 cents
i last saw it on here for.

JUST NOT WORTH MUCH AS A MARTIAL ARTS MOVIE!!