Before I review this movie. I would like to apology to those who will be taking offends or disagreeing my review or my opinions because my review contains a lot of spoilers.
I'm not going to do a story telling about the movie because this movie is the most expensive Chinese film so far (US$45 million) and it is directed by the famous Zhang Yimou and acted by legendary Chow Yun Fat from Hong Kong and Gong Li from China and popular Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou. So you should go watch it. It will at least worth your ticket price even if you may not really like it.
Curse of the Golden Flower is a sad film. Its a pretty short movie... about an hour plus. This film has very few characters. It only focus on the Royal family (5 members) and the Imperial doctor's family (3 members) and maybe 1 army general during the battle and 1 old eunuch man. I was disappointed that there was lack of character development in the movie even though there were so few characters, maybe because the movie was quite short. The characters were all very dull looking and speak in a very dull tone. There wasn't much of a happy scene, showing how miserable the royal family is.
Before I saw the movie, I expected it to involve more historical facts like the royal family, palace, their system, Tang dynasty etc. But it turn out to be just focusing on the story and forgot about those good points above that will improve the movie.
The movie's plot line is very simple but not very appealing or entertaining. It focus on the ridicules and yet complicated relationship between the Royal Family members. The *SPOILER* part in the movie was the incest relationship between the 1st Prince and his step mother. That was still okay for me... But he was also having another incest relationship with his half sister! which was super turn off for me.
During the climate of the film was when there was a battle between Silver and Gold army. Jay Chou's character led about 10 000 soldiers(if i'm not wrong) to march into their destination... but if you saw the movie, you will notice that only about 20 or more soldiers really got to fight and the rest were all massacre in the later part of the movie. Both army did not actually went into full battle. With US$45 million, I expected a real army battle. They got to make full and good use of the 1000 extras.
But other than all the spoilers, I do enjoy the wonderful and beautiful directing of Zhang Yimou but I don't think he can win an Oscar with this movie next year. I love the costumes, colors and the settings of the movie. Those elements colorize the movie and make it into a visually perfect and beautiful movie. The acting was great... Gong Li was superb as usual, Ye Liu (1st prince) was great too. Jay Chou's acting was okay but if compare to his previous movie Initial D, there was a big improvement. But I really really enjoy Chow Yun Fat's acting. There were news lately about him jokingly saying that Gong Li criticizing his mandarin. But to me, he did a great job and playing the villain in this movie, it was something fresh. He was the best in the movie. If they have this award for best villain of the year, he will sure to win.
The ending song by Jay Chou call "Chrysanthemum Flower Bed" is perfect for the ending. It is a nice song.
Curse of the Golden Flower is still worth watching. I'll rate it 6.5/10.
I'm not going to do a story telling about the movie because this movie is the most expensive Chinese film so far (US$45 million) and it is directed by the famous Zhang Yimou and acted by legendary Chow Yun Fat from Hong Kong and Gong Li from China and popular Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou. So you should go watch it. It will at least worth your ticket price even if you may not really like it.
Curse of the Golden Flower is a sad film. Its a pretty short movie... about an hour plus. This film has very few characters. It only focus on the Royal family (5 members) and the Imperial doctor's family (3 members) and maybe 1 army general during the battle and 1 old eunuch man. I was disappointed that there was lack of character development in the movie even though there were so few characters, maybe because the movie was quite short. The characters were all very dull looking and speak in a very dull tone. There wasn't much of a happy scene, showing how miserable the royal family is.
Before I saw the movie, I expected it to involve more historical facts like the royal family, palace, their system, Tang dynasty etc. But it turn out to be just focusing on the story and forgot about those good points above that will improve the movie.
The movie's plot line is very simple but not very appealing or entertaining. It focus on the ridicules and yet complicated relationship between the Royal Family members. The *SPOILER* part in the movie was the incest relationship between the 1st Prince and his step mother. That was still okay for me... But he was also having another incest relationship with his half sister! which was super turn off for me.
During the climate of the film was when there was a battle between Silver and Gold army. Jay Chou's character led about 10 000 soldiers(if i'm not wrong) to march into their destination... but if you saw the movie, you will notice that only about 20 or more soldiers really got to fight and the rest were all massacre in the later part of the movie. Both army did not actually went into full battle. With US$45 million, I expected a real army battle. They got to make full and good use of the 1000 extras.
But other than all the spoilers, I do enjoy the wonderful and beautiful directing of Zhang Yimou but I don't think he can win an Oscar with this movie next year. I love the costumes, colors and the settings of the movie. Those elements colorize the movie and make it into a visually perfect and beautiful movie. The acting was great... Gong Li was superb as usual, Ye Liu (1st prince) was great too. Jay Chou's acting was okay but if compare to his previous movie Initial D, there was a big improvement. But I really really enjoy Chow Yun Fat's acting. There were news lately about him jokingly saying that Gong Li criticizing his mandarin. But to me, he did a great job and playing the villain in this movie, it was something fresh. He was the best in the movie. If they have this award for best villain of the year, he will sure to win.
The ending song by Jay Chou call "Chrysanthemum Flower Bed" is perfect for the ending. It is a nice song.
Curse of the Golden Flower is still worth watching. I'll rate it 6.5/10.