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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Over-the-Top and Insane Family Soap Opera: Some May Claim "Flower" Is Art, I Say It's All Entertainment, November 11, 2007
Recalling the critical reviews of "Curse of the Golden Flower" upon its release, I seem to remember a pretty split decision. There were those that proclaimed the film a tawdry and violent melodrama while others declared it a beautiful epic. Well, in all fairness, it is a beautiful, yet tawdry, excessively violent melodramatic epic. And I mean that in all the best ways! Chinese director Zhang Yimou has put together an eye-popping spectacle of sets, costumes, and effects--complete with his customary flair for dreamlike action sequences and an astonishing color palette. Telling a soapy tale of dysfunction within Emperor Ping's clan circa The Tang Dynasty (928 A.D.), "Curse" has all the lurid ingredients of a modern-day potboiler. There are illicit affairs, murderous schemes, generational secrets, and gruesome acts of violence. Similar to the setup of "The Lion in Winter," "Curse" brings the Ping family together and lets them attack each other with a refreshingly unhinged viciousness. But while "Lion's" carnage was largely verbal, no such claim can be made with this film. With elements of "King Lear" firmly in place, the pace of "Curse" accelerates so rapidly--you know the characters are headed for disaster. Central to the remarkable cast is the gorgeous Gong Li as the Empress. As the catalyst of most of the film's action, Li is the film's most pivotal performer. The female center of this "Flower" (which includes Chow Yun Fat as her husband and their three sons/heirs), Li practically devours the role. Full of passion, rage, lust, and plenty of secrets--she has never been given a showier role and definitely rises to the occasion. The performances are so good, so alive, you want to stick with the tale to the bitter end. And no matter how outrageous this film can get (and the madcap finale certainly pushes conventional sensibilities), it is always grounded with the actors. Forget Shakespeare's most violent tragedies, "Curse" sports a body count that even the Bard would surely envy. Not since the wickedly over-the-top killing spree during the finale of DiPalma's "Scarface" has a movie devolved into such an unabashed show of bloody lunacy. Ridiculous at every turn, the film succeeds by embracing its excesses. The final showdown left me marveling at the staged choreography and laughing at the inspired, yet insane, debauchery. I won't contend that "Curse" is an artistic masterwork that rivals Yimou's previous films "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero"--but I will say that it is massive entertainment. A frantic, blood-soaked opera of lust and vengeance (with no apologies), I loved "Curse of the Golden Flower." KGHarris, 11/07.
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"A SQUARE WITHIN A CIRCLE, GOLD AND JADE ON THE OUTSIDE, ROT AND DECAY ON THE INSIDE", March 29, 2007
I note that an earlier reviewer saw the 'making-of' featurette. and it's a good intro into peeling away the layers of this quasi-Shakespearean melodrama. There's something dramatists like, the theme of the darkness beneath the beauty. Slow starting, Director Zhang moves faster and faster telling the tale of unfolding faces (in an asian sense) and the complexities of relationships, veering every so-often in to soap-operatics. Yet with extravagant graphics/ production qualities and a nice pattern of on-and-off action with teary or sneer-y confrontations and trysts, even the maybe too-dramatic elements work well. One measure might be that in re-seeing, the layers get more intense and understandable, adding weight to the conflicts; a plus for buyers versus renters. Now, if only a quality version of RAISE THE RED LANTERN would be released, Zhang Yimou's stature as a world-class director would be rightly, finally, established. With his successes this millennium, it might just happen for the man...
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intricate and Gorgeous Shakespearean Chinese Dynasty film, December 18, 2007
Outstanding! Incredible cinematography, exceptionally ornate sets, very appropriate and well-done music, academy award-level acting, I keep trying to come up with more superlatives to use for the movie! I thoroughly enjoyed every nanosecond of it. It held my interest so well that I simply could not stop watching it, twice! The sets are exquisitely detailed and opulent, the martial arts used were excellent. It is subtitled, so if you are not accustomed to reading English while trying to pick up on the tonal inflections of the actors you may miss much in their performances...unless of course you speak Mandarin. The plot was Shakespearen in both it's quality and its intricacy. The whole movie centers, and stays focused, on the life of the Imperial family and an upcoming coup within it. One of the other reviews noted that the Imperial physician's wife was having an affair with the Crown Prince, but I think they mis-stated. It was her daughter, Chan, having the affair and the mom became insensed with anger when she found out, since she was mother to both...and they didn't know it. There is so much intrigue and a very complex plot, yet somehow so well-written that I did not find it hard to follow at all. This is an excellent example of the best of Chinese film-making, and I think an outstanding period piece as well.
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