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Amazon.co.uk Review
Chinese director Zhang Yimou ends his bid to outfly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with Curse Of The Golden Flower, the third in his Wuxia (the Chinese style of flying and fighting) films. Much like Hero and House Of Flying Daggers, it is drenched in colours so dazzling, and boasts action scenes so exhilarating, that you can almost forgive any shortcomings in the story. Almost. Despite its grandeur, this film is in many ways the least rewarding of the three.
Set in China’s tenth century Tang dynasty, the story sees Chow Yun Fat’s emperor trying to poison his wife, a trussed-up and progressively unstable Gong Li, who is having an affair with her step-son Wan, and trying to manoeuvre her other son Jai against his tyrannical father. Let’s just say that it gets more complicated from there on in, and involves lots of running through endless corridors, but really, it’s best to just sit back and let that intense visual style work its magic.
Swapping action for dramatic intrigue might have been Yimou’s mistake, but there’s no mistaking his knack for breath-taking cinematography. Even if purely on a visual scale, Golden Flower still manages to captivate, and the final battle scene is at least worth the slightly overlong wait. Die hard fans of these films might feel a bit stiffed, but everyone else won’t be short of eye candy. --Luke Mawson
Synopsis
In 2004, Zhang Yimou caused a sensation with his astonishing House of Flying Daggers, and his Curse of the Golden Flower is yet another dazzling, visually stunning film. Calling again upon the talents of the striking Gong Li, Yimou tells an epic tale of lust and power set in the opulent world of the Later Tang dynasty. The plot follows the story of the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) and his Empress (Li) and the tragic disintegration of their royal family--whose problems go far beyond the merely dysfunctional. For starters, the ailing Empress has long been having an affair with her stepson, the Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye). Unbeknownst to her, Wan has been dallying with the Imperial Doctor's daughter (Li Man), and has plans to escape the palace with her. Meanwhile, the Emperor himself has just returned from a long trip, and while relations with his wife are obviously icy, it becomes clear that his plans for her are far more ominous than she could ever imagine. Everyone involved has a secret plan for either escape or domination, resulting in an explosive ending wherein the darkest family secrets are revealed and horrifically bloody battles are waged both inside and outside the walls of the sparkling, gold-encrusted palace. Yimou appears to be trying to balance his flair for telling an emotional story with his talent for thrilling, detail-driven action sequences, and while Curse's plot does at times seem close to that of a soap opera, the phenomenal performances and breathtaking visuals are more than enough to power the film forward. Fans of Yimou's quieter work (Riding Along For Thousands of Miles) are likely to enjoy the dramatic exploration of family relationships, while there are still plenty of hissing ninjas to satisfy Daggers enthusiasts.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Curse of the Golden Flower is a subtle mix of the oppression of women, revenge, martial arts and stunning beauty. It is clear from the early stages of the film that the film is going to have some amazing visuals, and at no point within the entire film are we disappointed by the direction of the art. With each new room, we can see a palace that is full of decadence and tradition. With gold an incredibly important part of the film, it is understandable to see why every last item is gold plated, gold brushed or just gold in colour.
The storyline itself is also rather complicated if you have no prior knowledge to the backstabbing Chinese Royal Family's history. The film is centred around the Empress, played by Gong Li (recently seen in Memoir's of a Geisha), and throughout the opening passages of the film we are shown the tradition that governs the Forbidden City's way of life, her struggle with the Emperor and her increasingly deadly illness.
After an hour or so of almost period drama styling, where we are slowly introduced to some of the more complicated power struggles, we are thrown into the action sequence of the film. Where there are Ninjas, Imperial Guards and masked men en-mass. All of which are fighting for different factions within the Royal Family.
The film ends on a powerful high note, and we're left to guess whether or not the Empress will suffer for the attempted coup d'état.
One must not forget the soundtrack to the film either, throughout the entire film there is a strong soundtrack being played, there are only a few scenes without the music composed by Shigeru Umebayashi. The composition adds depth and emotion to the film, which is only heightened by the stunning performance from Gong Li.
If you are expecting something similar to House of Flying Daggers then you will be slightly disappointed, although the visuals are far more impressive than Daggers, the action is far more sparse and you get the feeling that the action was meant to be more of a sideline aspect of the film. As the story surrounds the coup d'état and the relationships between the characters, in which there is in abundance and a few cross character relationships as well.
This film is easily worth the viewing if you enjoy powerful visuals, with a strong story and you can read subtitles at a quick speed.
The storyline itself is also rather complicated if you have no prior knowledge to the backstabbing Chinese Royal Family's history. The film is centred around the Empress, played by Gong Li (recently seen in Memoir's of a Geisha), and throughout the opening passages of the film we are shown the tradition that governs the Forbidden City's way of life, her struggle with the Emperor and her increasingly deadly illness.
After an hour or so of almost period drama styling, where we are slowly introduced to some of the more complicated power struggles, we are thrown into the action sequence of the film. Where there are Ninjas, Imperial Guards and masked men en-mass. All of which are fighting for different factions within the Royal Family.
The film ends on a powerful high note, and we're left to guess whether or not the Empress will suffer for the attempted coup d'état.
One must not forget the soundtrack to the film either, throughout the entire film there is a strong soundtrack being played, there are only a few scenes without the music composed by Shigeru Umebayashi. The composition adds depth and emotion to the film, which is only heightened by the stunning performance from Gong Li.
If you are expecting something similar to House of Flying Daggers then you will be slightly disappointed, although the visuals are far more impressive than Daggers, the action is far more sparse and you get the feeling that the action was meant to be more of a sideline aspect of the film. As the story surrounds the coup d'état and the relationships between the characters, in which there is in abundance and a few cross character relationships as well.
This film is easily worth the viewing if you enjoy powerful visuals, with a strong story and you can read subtitles at a quick speed.
51 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Firstly lets be clear about thing, this is not a martial arts movie though it has some incredible martial arts scenes that will take your breath away and leave you looking on in stunned wonder.
Also it is a foreign language film, fortunately not dubbed but with subtitles, not everyone's cup of tea but this will not stop you from enjoying ever single second of it, from the opening credits to the blood splattered ending.
The Curse of the Golden Flower is a sumptuous tale about family secrets, revenge, lust, desire, incest, adultery, power, and corruption, all wrapped up in a beautiful but very flawed package that is the Forbidden City of 10th century China.
Never before has one come across such a dysfunctional family as the Tang dynasty, the exquisite but deadly Empress Phoenix, played by the gorgeous Li Gong, the thoroughly amoral Emperor Ping, a glorious Yun Fat Chow in his element, his three sons, the weak Crown Prince Wan (Ye Liu)who has been having an affair with his stepmother, the Empress, Prince Jai, (Jay Chou) brilliant solider, and loyal son to his mother, torn between duty and love, he will make a fateful decision that will herald the beginning of the end for his family. And last but certainly not least the spoilt and unloved Prince Yu, (Junjie Qin) whose hatred of his family is cunningly disguised by his seemingly placid nature and acceptance of his lowly third son status.
Add to this mix, an Imperial Physician (Dahong Ni) with a wife (Jin Chen) whose connection to the royal household is a closely guarded secret, her daughter the lovely Chan (Man Li) who is is in love with the Crown Prince and you have the ingredients for a tragedy on a scale that can only be imagined.
With breathtaking scenery, the carpet of golden chrysanthemums has to be seen to be believed, fantastic costumes, atmospheric background music, coupled with stunning fight sequences between assassins and royal guards you will be left with your jaw hanging down as you witness the golden warriors go into battle against the Emperor and the twists and turns in a film that is none stop action and intrigue throughout.
The overall acting is without doubt perfection on celluloid, its a shame it didn't win an Oscar but sometimes Hollywood gets it wrong, and boy did they get it wrong this time!
Also it is a foreign language film, fortunately not dubbed but with subtitles, not everyone's cup of tea but this will not stop you from enjoying ever single second of it, from the opening credits to the blood splattered ending.
The Curse of the Golden Flower is a sumptuous tale about family secrets, revenge, lust, desire, incest, adultery, power, and corruption, all wrapped up in a beautiful but very flawed package that is the Forbidden City of 10th century China.
Never before has one come across such a dysfunctional family as the Tang dynasty, the exquisite but deadly Empress Phoenix, played by the gorgeous Li Gong, the thoroughly amoral Emperor Ping, a glorious Yun Fat Chow in his element, his three sons, the weak Crown Prince Wan (Ye Liu)who has been having an affair with his stepmother, the Empress, Prince Jai, (Jay Chou) brilliant solider, and loyal son to his mother, torn between duty and love, he will make a fateful decision that will herald the beginning of the end for his family. And last but certainly not least the spoilt and unloved Prince Yu, (Junjie Qin) whose hatred of his family is cunningly disguised by his seemingly placid nature and acceptance of his lowly third son status.
Add to this mix, an Imperial Physician (Dahong Ni) with a wife (Jin Chen) whose connection to the royal household is a closely guarded secret, her daughter the lovely Chan (Man Li) who is is in love with the Crown Prince and you have the ingredients for a tragedy on a scale that can only be imagined.
With breathtaking scenery, the carpet of golden chrysanthemums has to be seen to be believed, fantastic costumes, atmospheric background music, coupled with stunning fight sequences between assassins and royal guards you will be left with your jaw hanging down as you witness the golden warriors go into battle against the Emperor and the twists and turns in a film that is none stop action and intrigue throughout.
The overall acting is without doubt perfection on celluloid, its a shame it didn't win an Oscar but sometimes Hollywood gets it wrong, and boy did they get it wrong this time!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
Yimou Zhang's 2006 spectacular epic Curse of the Golden Flower set in the 10th century was given its European Blu-ray release on August 2011, that's four years after the DVD release; I'm glad to report the wait was worth it, this region free disc is encoded using MPEG4 in full 1080p resolution which shows up the colourful sets and the golden costumes and jewellery in all their glory, details such as the beads of sweat on foreheads now show up, the up-grade to Blu-ray also shows the emotions of the characters better and during the combat scenes involving bladed weapons sparks fly as they clang and scrape against each other this was not so obvious to me watching this production on DVD
The disc has a Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack which picks up all the delicate ambient sounds such as the rustle of the silk clothes as the characters walk around, the music has a lot more detail and the menacing sounding choir dominates and adds texture and atmosphere, there are two sets of English subtitles one normal and the other for the hard of hearing. This has become part of my test disc library with its use of deep rich colours and the blackest of blacks.
There are very few special features compared to its DVD counterpart it has the featurettes called "Secrets Within" and two others called "The Empress" and "The Emperor" respectively and that's it, the DVD had the teaser trailer and the trailer and a Photo gallery.
The disc has a Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack which picks up all the delicate ambient sounds such as the rustle of the silk clothes as the characters walk around, the music has a lot more detail and the menacing sounding choir dominates and adds texture and atmosphere, there are two sets of English subtitles one normal and the other for the hard of hearing. This has become part of my test disc library with its use of deep rich colours and the blackest of blacks.
There are very few special features compared to its DVD counterpart it has the featurettes called "Secrets Within" and two others called "The Empress" and "The Emperor" respectively and that's it, the DVD had the teaser trailer and the trailer and a Photo gallery.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautifully produced
I enjoyed this film with generally good acting and the right mix of action and dialogue. The sets, especially within the buildings are stunningly colourful and opulent.
Published 22 days ago by Wags
Curse of the Golden Flower
A fascinating story but this is a must watch in Blu-ray as the colours are amazing and it's so good that you don't notice the sub titles.
Published 2 months ago by John Eric Jones
Golden flower
Sad.. wasnt really impressed with this blu ray, HD rendition in some scenes were very grainy and of course not much extras to talk about expecially in this disk was expecting more... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Blue Ray guru
Stunning Film
I can not understand why there are so many poor ratings for this film. I have seen the directors previous two martial arts films and personally think this is his finest... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Leeam
The Chinese do it big and do it well
This is a classic movie. Worth every penny spent.
Excellent directing, acting and magnificently choreographed. Read more
Excellent directing, acting and magnificently choreographed. Read more
Published 5 months ago by B. Waruna Gomis
love this film
Sent this to my daughter as a suprise. Price is brilliant and we love the film. It is really helpful to be able to send to a different address especially with free p and p.
Published 5 months ago by lynn
I'd give it 10 stars if I could!!
Watching this epic, I was struck (and not for the first time) with the thought; "why can't we in the west make films as strikingly imaginative and visually sumptuous as this? Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. S. C. Lyons
The title says it all - THE CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER
I purchased this on the back of revisiting the 'Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon, 'The legend of the shadowless sword' and a few other chinese and Korean historicals. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Uenna
Loved it!
This strikes me as the type of film that House of Flying Daggers should have been and wasn't. This has a really beautiful balance between artistry and reality. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mrs Danvers
Fun to watch
Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower has had little praise from a lot of professional reviewers. I don't care, I will watch anything with Gong Li in the cast. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Blue Hermit
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