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Curse of the Golden Flower

Movie Review
June 2, 2008

About:
2006
Genre: Drama

In ancient China, an emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) is screwing over his wife (Gong Li), who is screwing his eldest son (Liu Ye), who is screwing a court servant (Li Man). Then they all decide to screw each other over and end up royally screwed. At least, that’s what I think was happening plotwise—I was so distracted by the pretty scenery (tie-dye Chinese palace, woohoo!) that I didn’t always pay close attention to the plot. Not that it mattered, since the whole story was told with the kind of operatic melodrama that can be seen from space. Gong Li does a lot of storming about the palace, which I would normally complain about as being rather monotonously repetitive after the first few times but OH MY GOD, THAT PALACE IS SO PRETTY. So storm on, Gong Li, and show us all those neon corridors.

As is usual with operatic melodramas, the plot points are apparently complex but actually very simple, and even the most devious plot twists are telegraphed at least an hour before they are officially “revealed”. Or maybe it’s just me—for some reason, I can smell incest a mile away. Maybe I just have a sick mind. The fight scenes were distinctly lacking, especially when compared with movies like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It was all very shiny and ornate, but I probably could have left the room in the middle of it and not remembered to come back. It’s worth watching, if only for the tie-dye palace, but if you want good fight scenes, get Hero instead.