Shakespearian and flawed, moving and irritating, talky and with an impossibly high body count, Hamlet meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower is often interesting, but uneven to say the least.
Ancient China: the Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) is slowly poisoning his wife (Gong Li), who has a relationship with her stepson Wan (Ye Liu), heir to the throne. The other two sons are Jai (Jay Chou) and Yu (Junjie Qin). Jai decides to help his mother overthrow the Emperor, while Wan takes his father's side.
There are moments of sheer beauty in the Curse of the Golden Flower, but also phoney and contrived scenes. Some set-pieces are great - ninjas assaulting a house in a misty valley, a battle with golden and silver armours clashing - but other moments look uncomfortably computer-generated. The film does not achieve the visual magnificence of Yimou's Hero.
Every frame is saturated with deep colours, creating an oppressive atmosphere inside the maze-like palace, with the always-repeating ritual of the "cure" with which the Emperor poisons his wife.
Gorgeous Gong Li plays the Empress and gives a powerful performance as a woman driven by strong feelings. Also excellent is the always charismatic Chow Yun-Fat as the Emperor, a cruel tyrant who is genuinely fond of his sons. Jay Chou and Ye Liu are fine as the two princes faced with moral dilemmas.
Hero is one of the best-looking movies ever made, but I found it morally reprehensible. Here the message is more ambiguous, with Yimou trying to show the brutality and solitude of power in this Shakespearian tragedy set in Ancient China.
The result falls somewhere between "brilliant but flawed" and "interesting failure", worth watching for some compelling moments and strong performances.
6/10
Ancient China: the Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) is slowly poisoning his wife (Gong Li), who has a relationship with her stepson Wan (Ye Liu), heir to the throne. The other two sons are Jai (Jay Chou) and Yu (Junjie Qin). Jai decides to help his mother overthrow the Emperor, while Wan takes his father's side.
There are moments of sheer beauty in the Curse of the Golden Flower, but also phoney and contrived scenes. Some set-pieces are great - ninjas assaulting a house in a misty valley, a battle with golden and silver armours clashing - but other moments look uncomfortably computer-generated. The film does not achieve the visual magnificence of Yimou's Hero.
Every frame is saturated with deep colours, creating an oppressive atmosphere inside the maze-like palace, with the always-repeating ritual of the "cure" with which the Emperor poisons his wife.
Gorgeous Gong Li plays the Empress and gives a powerful performance as a woman driven by strong feelings. Also excellent is the always charismatic Chow Yun-Fat as the Emperor, a cruel tyrant who is genuinely fond of his sons. Jay Chou and Ye Liu are fine as the two princes faced with moral dilemmas.
Hero is one of the best-looking movies ever made, but I found it morally reprehensible. Here the message is more ambiguous, with Yimou trying to show the brutality and solitude of power in this Shakespearian tragedy set in Ancient China.
The result falls somewhere between "brilliant but flawed" and "interesting failure", worth watching for some compelling moments and strong performances.
6/10