Curse of the Golden Flower Review

I just finished this movie, being a fan of Asian cinema. Advertised as another martial arts masterpiece as Zhang Yimou, 'Curse of the Golden Flower' cannot be described as such, but rather Greek/Shakespearean tragedy within Tang dynasty China. Set almost entirely in the Forbidden City, life amongst the royal family makes 'The Lion in Winter' look like the Cleaver family reunion of 'Leave it to Beaver' by comparison. The Emperor Ping (Chow Young Fat) is a despot who is determined to keep his grip on power while slowly poisoning his wife, the Empress Phoenix (Gong Li), who is engaged in an incestuous relationship with her stepson the Crown Prince Wan (Ye Liu) , who is sleeping with the imperial doctor's daughter and...you get the idea.

Overall, the characters are very well drawn out. Similar to a Chinese 'Lion in Winter', most of them have the potential of being good people, but ultimately are kept from that as a result of being consumed by jealousy, passion and power. The Empress Phoenix, who undoubtably takes the center stage, is particularly strong as she tries to hang onto her sanity and plot her husband's overthrow; a perfect, gorgeous, femme fatale that is so hard to come by these days. Aesthetically, the Forbidden City has probably never been more ornate on screen before.

Now, onto the bad. The above-mentioned sets, though gorgeous at times, are colorful to the point of overbearing, coming across as a Chinese rendition of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. The martial arts scenes are not the best, CGI backgrounds and warriors are far too obvious. All the exposed clevage starts looking ridiculous after a while (I wonder just how many takes were wasted because someone fell out of her dress?). Although these can be taken to some degree, what ultimately makes 'Curse of the Golden Flower' fail to reach masterpiece status is within the plot itself. The family is a bit too dysfunctional, making one wonder why they hadn't imploded years before. With the mass of intrigue, deception, betrayal, etc; none of it seems worth it for the ending that is ultimately served up.


****HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOILERS*******


It just seemed like Zhang just wanted to end the whole thing by just killing off most of the cast and as many disposable warriors as possible. For all the drama and death packed in the last act, the ending itself seemed to be wildly unrewarding. The festival proceeds, all of the princes are dead, the Emperor Ping is left to resume feeding the Empress Phoenix her 'medicine' as punishment. In other words, cosmic order of the universe dictated by him remains perfectly in place. Unfortunately, this is a problematic ending, as while it's painted in such a way that the Empress 'loses' and the Emperor 'wins'. Despots, whether they be fictional or real, are traditionally obsessive of their legacy; especially in the form of succession. Since Emperor Ping was originally a military captain who managed to marry into the royal family, one would think that the continuation of his line would be especially important for him. Therefore, losing all of his sons should have had a much stronger impact on him than it actually did. A better written script would have made this clearer: while the Empress is doomed to an agonizing death, the Emperor will do the same as well because he is now without issue, which leaves room for another dynasty that will obliterate his legacy; leaving no winner behind.. Unfortunately, since Zhang is now director of Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the end message seems to be much more reflective of the Chinese government than the director himself.






******END SPOILERS************


To sum it up, the movie is what would call 'a flawed masterpiece'. The characters are incredibly faceted and multi-dimensional, especially Gong Li. But ultimately, the picture collapses under it's own weight in melodrama, overdone sets, ritual and cleavage; as well as an undercooked ending. This just does not measure up to be one of the best of Zhang Yimou's work; but could potentially have been.