Curse of the Golden Flower is
as beautiful as a summer rain on a field of orchids.
Lush and laden with vibrant color, it is a rich feast
for the eyes. Patterns. Colors. Vistas. It is a film built
upon beauty, wonderful to behold.
 Yet
beneath the beauty is a story about familial ugliness
of the Shakespearian variety; dirty, rotten and vile.
Sons sleep with stepmothers. Sisters sleep with brothers.
Husbands plot to kill wives, wives plot to kill husbands,
and fathers play games of life and death in an effort
to hold fast to power. All here revolves around a series
of interconnected relationships, and an emperor’s
desire for total control. Thus all is destined to spiral
out of control.
Curse of the Golden Flower tells the
story of Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-Fat), a man who has married
the princess of a neighboring providence in China, played
by Asian superstar Gong Li. She has borne him two sons;
he has another by a previous woman. The family relationship
is dysfunctional at best. It is through those three sons
that the struggle between Emperor and Empress plays itself
out, first with he seeking to kill she, and then she
plotting against he. Sons
will be pitted against father and mother and one another,
and in the end? Blood will have been shed.
A shiny, happy film this is not. All those vivid colors
and the opulent sets are key to this film’s theme:
gold on the outside, rot within. This is not a family at
peace.
It’s difficult to avoid being compelled by the
back and forth plotting, steady stream of revelations and
absolutely heartbreaking betrayals. The turns are often
surprising, and because most of the characters outside
the conniving emperor are worthy of the audience’s
sympathy, they’re enough to keep you riding an emotional
roller coaster. The story is tight, direct and never less
than interesting. I was kept guessing on who would survive
this family struggle until the last. None end up happy.
And so it goes.
Oh, and as might be expected from the Yimou Zhang, director
of Hero and The House of Flying
Daggers, there is some highly impressive fighting,
too, staged on the largest set in Chinese cinema history,
a sprawling, massive palace. Armies clash and swords strike
and warriors defy gravity during the sometime intimate,
usually sprawling battles.
 That said, it is important to note that while packed
with action, especially in the film’s latter third,
this isn’t a experience built around little more
than a series of stylish set pieces, ala Hero.
This is all about plot and character. The wire-fu action
is visually impressive, yes, and the large-scale battles
late in the film are suitable grand, but dare I say most
of it is highly unnecessary. At times even self-indulgent.
The story is strong enough to stand on its own without
the lion’s share of the well-choreographed action.
In fact, early on it feels terribly misplaced, while obvious
CGI effects later on are distracting in a film otherwise
filled with otherworldly beauty. I could have done without
most of it.
 See, when all is said and done, character is all here.
Motivation, desire and inner turmoil drive the plot forward,
not the need to show another battle. And that makes Curse
of the Golden Flower an engaging ride worth taking.
Each character’s emotional journey is a ride unto
itself. This compelling tale is brought to life with strong
acting and a lush visual presentation that makes this easy
to recommend.
Disc Presentation
With the rich and vibrant colors on display here, nothing
less than an excellent transfer should be tolerated. And
an excellent transfer we’ve got. The endless golden
color of this film, laced with blues and reds and greens,
looks beautiful. The widescreen presentation is lovely,
with little in the way of artifacting or halos.
In other words, it looks great.
 Sounds great as well. Too bad that means the rather laboriously
repetitive score is so often front and center. The lack
of variety in the music is unfortunate and minorly distracting.
Otherwise, this sounds good.
Disc Extras
A very nice array of extras make this a disc worth looking
into.
First up is Secrets Within. Clocking in at about
22 minutes, this documentary is a solid look behind the
scenes at the making if this film, briskly covering the
script, the actors, the sets and costumes, and the overall
production. In addition to the usual insight into the production,
we get an insight into the mindset behind the story, the
approach of the actors, and the themes that anchor this
tragic story. A very worthwhile extra.
 Los
Angeles Premier is what it sounds like: footage from
the L.A. premier of Curse of the Golden Flower.
At just two minutes it’s quite brief, but there are
a few snatches of insight not found in the main documentary.
There is an English dub on the disc; it stinks. Watch
the Chinese audio track or don’t watch it at all.
(Okay, okay, the dub is very skillfully done, almost always
adhering closely to the movements of the actors’ lips.
If you simply have to watch the English dub, this
certainly isn’t a bad one.)
Finally, the disc contains trailers for ten films, including Black
Book, The House of Flying Daggers, American Hardcore, The
Italian, Kung Fu Hustle, and others.
The Bottom Line
This beautiful piece of Chinese cinema by one of that
country’s most acclaimed directors, Yimou Zhang
(Hero, House of Flying Daggers), is a
lush, colorful tale of a family on the verge of collapse
that is drawn from the same spiritual well as Hamlet,
King Lear and other Shakespearian tragedies. High production
values, strong actors, powerful script. Curse
of the Golden Flower is a wonderful experience
for whether or not you’re an aficionado of Asian
cinema.
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