Curse of the Golden Flower is a beautiful movie in every way. The costumes, sets, scenery, and actresses are all beautiful. The cinematography is amazing and grandiose. Battles with thousands of soldiers, huge ornate sets, and elaborate fight choreography, it is truly a visual feast.But visuals alone are not worth the price of admission. Despite the slightly soap opera-esque plot, the story was still compelling. I don't really know how much I can describe without giving away too much, but I'll say that it is about a power struggle between the emperor, his wife, and his three sons. The story is told in a very subtle way. Until the end, most of the plot is hinted at and not told outright. This type of story telling demands more of it's actors, and this cast performed admirably.
If you're like me, when you see a big budget Hong Kong film, you prepare yourself for a lot of martial arts, particularly some unrealistic wire work. Personally I can't stand all of the flying around. I've asked my sensei to teach me to fly, or at the very least run across the tree tops, but he refuses. And until I can fly, I don't want to see it in my movies. Luckily there was none of that here. As a matter of fact, there was little action until the last 30 minutes of the movie. It is really plot driven, and not action driven. This pleases me.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I am now officially in love with Gong Li. I've seen her in several movies before - as a matter of fact 5 other films now that I look at it. Some of them were pretty bad (do not under any circumstances watch Miami Vice), and so it wasn't really until this movie that I completely fell for her. Sure, she still looked beautiful in the bad movies, but there is just something off putting about a bad movie, it clings to you like an offensive odor. But Curse of the Golden Flower has cleansed her of the bad film stigma, so if you read this Gong Li, will you marry me?
So all things considered, this movie gets 4 golden flowers out of 5. I bestow recommended viewing status upon it.
2 comments:
I have been in love with her since I saw her 20 ys ago in Raise the Red Lantern. Stunning. Her American films simply don't tap into a 100th of her talent.
Raise the Red Lantern is getting up close to the top of my Neflix queue. I didn't know she was in it, but now may have to bump that one up a little.
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