Too much of everything

Let's be realistic.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I must admit that this movie is one of the worst disappointments in my life. I saw it by recommendation, and from the comments they made me, I thought it would be a masterpiece: A visually perfect film with a great plot focused on family drama and mistrust. What was my opinion when I finished seeing it ?: Yes, it has family drama, but the softer one. A plot that we have seen over and over again in best- sellers or epic films and while good visually, is not a masterpiece in this regard. Everything is overloaded: the colors, the elements of the changing rooms, the decorations. Everything is arranged so that you do not get to appreciate everything and feel overwhelmed with it. The movie is not meant for you to enjoy a good story, it's made for you to say "oh, look at those great scenarios, how awesome" and nothing more. It is not a deep movie and it lacks everything to be considered a "masterpiece". The plot and its coherence and any interest we might have in it were sacrificed for what could be considered a "greater good" but ended up being a "major evil." This leads to the fact that even the characters are not interesting, they are flat and boring and the actors hardly make an effort to interpret them and that, at the end of instances, it seems that they realized that they made a mistake with the plot and tried to remedy it. The resulting was a whole sequence of meaningless dialogues and cringe situations that give way to an equally disappointing and insipid end. Summary of everything said: They wanted to make a film visually perfect and failed. There was no effort in dealing with the plot or the characters and the director seemed more willing to teach scenarios and costumes than a good movie with all that it entails.

Apparently director Yimou Zhang was just warming up with "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" before tackling the project that resulted in "Curse of the Golden Flower". I think it's pretty safe to say you won't find a more outrageously colorful film anywhere in any genre, even topping the effort of Zhang's prior two films.It seems there's a bit of a disconnect between the opening scene which states the story takes place in 28 A.D. China during the Tang Dynasty, while the story line indicated on the IMDb title page for the movie places the time frame in the Tenth Century. A quick internet search reveals that the Tang Dynasty lasted from 618 to 907 A.D., so something must have gone awry there. Nevertheless, it's a compelling story if you're into dysfunctional royal families, because this tale is loaded with intrigue, falsehoods, and a surfeit of double crosses that results in disaster for most of it's principals.What you won't find here so much is traditional martial arts mayhem when it comes to the action scenes. A lot of that is provided by the ninja-like, black clad warriors who descend on the royal palace to defend the Emperor (Yun-Fat Chow), while an immense battle scene is staged in the latter part of the picture that rivals the opposing forces in "The Return of the King" from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you like to see your fight scenes handled realistically, better pass here as Prince Jai (Jay Chou) finds himself continually surrounded by hordes of attacking soldiers and fighting his way out just a bit too handily.So that's not the reason I would recommend the film for potential viewers. What I thrill to is the gorgeous cinematography and spectacular use of color for scenes ranging from the Imperial Palace to the chrysanthemum laden battlefield that lends a sublime backdrop to the carnage that follows. You'll also have to pay attention to the machinations of the main characters, virtually all of them deceitful and decadent as they play out their strategies to disastrous ends.

An intense drama with superb production design.It's the kind of drama that we used to see in our childhood with family politics involved and the fight is for the throne. Who is going to be the heir? How to take the throne from a king who is good at fighting but not so kind at heart? This forms the whole story and indeed that is what is the whole movie.Characters are shown as they are, and slowly as the film progresses, their real motives are revealed. From crown prince to the empress to a doctor, everyone is doing something for themselves and its their selfishness that has drowned them. At the beginning, I thought it would be hard to understand story, but as things got simpler, I started actually disliking it. It's a complex story with every character being pivotal to the culmination of the story, yet with each detail revealed I was getting to know more of the story and as knowledge grew, interest reduced and that's what happened. Yet, this is a very hardcore drama and a great drama too. We don't see so much of politics involved and each character plotting against the other in many films. Now, before I go ahead reviewing anything, costume design and set design which combine into production design are aspects I loved this movie for. The climax fight that is choreographed superbly shows a glimpse of how authentic the whole film is. From beginning to the end, the palace, the kings costume, the queen's embroidery each has it's own distinct artistry and all are beautiful. Gong Li as the empress has showed great variation in emotion and so did Chow Yun Fat as the emperor. All others showed emotion well. Sound design was good tooNow, this is good movie and not a great one though, a 3/5 is what I think is apt.

I was not planning to watch this movie. I zapped right into the movie starting on German TV. I recorded it to watch it some other time. But since I was so fascinated by the movie's sounds, colors and interesting and mysterious story line, I just kept watching it until the end. I am not good in writing reviews like a pro with that special structure and conclusion and things like that. I prefer writing what I think or what I would tell a friend talking about a movie. In my opinion this definitely is a great movie to watch especially if you like Asian movies, the old Chinese emperor times or even fighting scenes, which btw fit great into the movie, not too dominating, not too ridiculous. Overwhelming are the colors in that movie. A must see! I loved the scenes with walking people in the palace corridors, the flowers for the big event, everything! The emperor, embodied perfectly by Chow, really knows how the rule and reign. The palace is gigantic, the people are just drones, the army is so big...unbelievable. But topping everything is the empress. So strong, breath-taking beautiful, loving. It is more than goose-bumping, watching her in that movie. The clothes, hair, costumes in general are very nice in this film. And really, is there anything sexier than the moving nose wings of Gong Li in excitement? :-) I doubt it...