Okay, maybe more movie bashing than review. Before I go on, I must mention that if you don't want to read spoilers, please hit Alt+F4 now. :)
I just finished watching another crapy, artsy fartsy film by Zhang Yimou. I don't have anything against Zhang Yimou per se, but rather, the boring, plotless, mind numbing big budget films that China has been releasing the past few years. (I really liked "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" which were also directed by Chang.) With the likes of ultra craptastic movies like WuJi (english title "The Promise" Directed by Cheng Kaige) release in 2005, and several other absolutely disappointing big budget busts, I have little expectation when I watch these new type of movies.
All these movies has a few things in common: BIG budgets, artsy fartsy style of directing, little to ZERO plot, alot of big name actors, and have little to show in the end. It would seem all the producers only cared about how "pretty" the movie looked, but never put much thought into the storylines, or developing the main characters.
Curse of the Golden Flower was such a movie. Well, it wasn't quite as bad as Wuji (The Promise), which was probably the worst movie ever made.
I bought the DVD in China, which probably is bootlegged, but it's very high quality. I paid $7yuan for it, or less than $1USD. That's probably about all that movie is worth for spending money on.
Curse of the Golden Flower Movie
Note: movie spoiler below.
In a nutshell, the movie is about a semi-psychotic queen (played by Gong Li) who plots to overthrow the king and make her son the new emperor.
The film is set during the Tang Dynasty involving a dysfunctional royal family. The emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns from the battlefront to celebrate Chong Yang (chrysanthemum) Festival which is on the nineth day of the nineth month. The relationship between the emperor and the emperess (Gong Li) is strained beyond repair, and the family is haunted by some dark, hidden secrets.
The emperor has three sons; the oldest son (crown prince) whom seems to attract all the wrong women - he is the son of the king and a former wife who "passed on"; the second son is a great warrior who is now the king's favorite, and the third son is still a teenager who is negelected and knows more than he lets on - the empress is mother to both 2nd and 3rd sons.
With her mysterious illness and strained relationship with the emperor and the first son, she plots to de-throne the emperor during the Chong Yang Festival. The movie unfolds and we find out the the empress is having an affair with the first prince. The king's former wife, whos family was "disposed" of by the king after they helped him ascend the throne, was punished as a prisoner and left to die. As fate would have it, she was rescued by the imperial physician and marries him, and they have a daughter (Jiang Chan) who is a servant to the empress.
The first prince is also having an affair with Jiang Chan, who he later finds out is actually his sister. The king knows of the affair between the first prince and the empress, and I'm guessing that's the main reason why he ordered the poisoning of the empress which was the cause of her mysterious illness - there was also no love between them to begin with. The empress was married from another kingdom to fortify the relationship between the two countries.
On the day of the Festival, everything unfolds, and all the skeletons comes out of the closets. The king ordered the killing of the royal physicians entire family along with his wife and daughter - the only two that stay alive long enough to make it into the palace to confront the king. At this point, the first prince sees his birth mother for the first time, and finds out that he's been having an affair with his sister Jiang Chan.
In desperation, Jiang Chan rans off and gets killed along with her mother by the kings assasins. The third son, who no one pays attention to, stabs the unsuspecting first prince through the chest. He knew of the affair between his mother and the first prince, and also knew of his mother's plans to dethrone the emperor and make the second son the new king. The third son, with his 8 guards, plotted to dethrone his father before the empress had the opportunity; however, he fails miserably, and gets belted to death by the emperor.
The queen's ten thousand men wearing golden armour had charged through into the inner courts of the castle where the festival was being held, only to find themselves surrouded by archers, and infantry. It quickly became a blood bath, where the 10,000 men were killed within several minutes by archers, with only the second prince left standing. The emperor had been warned of the revolt by his oldest son, who found out about the empress' plan. In the end, the 2nd prince commits suicide, and the empress knocks over her medication which was pure poison.
The movie was filmed in vivid and bright colors and surroundings, and all the casts wore lavish outfits and costumes. It would seem that all these movies seems to allocate most of their budget to special effects and lavishly decorated movie sets, rather than spending a little more time and money on the actual script of the movie. Too much emphasis on eye candy than on real substance.
The movie was big budget, that's for sure... But, having a lot of cash to produce and hire big names and ALOT of extras is about all the movie had to show for it. 6/10 I'd say. |
