sm22281 Reviews

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)

Great dramatic acting within stunning visual jewel box

[10/10 · 14 January 2007]

I am not sure what some of the critics and spoilers of the COTGF story were expecting... I agree with the comparisons of Shakespearan tragedies and royal family intrigues, and the reference to dysfunctional families and meltdowns. Actually, I was thinking a lot about the Lion in Winter transported in a Chinese setting. In the English drama, the King simply has the Queen imprisoned for her political rebellion. In this movie, the Emperor decides to slowly poison the Empress because of her affair with his oldest son. Both lead characters have their reasons for sticking to their planned course of action. Also, I was reminded about the Borgias and some of the other Italian, French and Greek royal dramas when emotions get totally out of hand. Why do some viewers say that emotions are over the top or that the females are too scantily clad? This movie shows that Chinese characters can have very powerful human emotions: sexual attraction,lust, filial love, greed, ambition... just like any other people in the world.

And yes, the Chinese Imperial Palace is displayed on an extravagantly grand scale just because it is possible to do it only in China! China has more people than any other country and can afford the larger than life scenes in opulent settings.

The Emperor is at first shown as a kind father who wants to maintain a harmonious balance of family and state. Ultimately, we find out that he is a hypocritical megalomaniac who obliterated his first wife's family in his bid to become Emperor and will not allow anyone to cross his will in his kingdom. Interestingly, even for a blood thirsty dictator, he has his soft spot, and that is his love for his first born son, who means well but appears rather weak of morals.

The acting is very powerful: the epitome of Chinese acting is in the facial expressions within a restrained and mechanical setting (see Chinese opera) and both Gong Li and Cho Yung Fat do a great job in their roles. Watch the eyes and the hands... The occasional outbursts of real emotion when the character is pushed beyond its limits: see the Empress when she occasionally cannot help herself and tries to seduce the Crown Prince as a woman; see the Emperor when he toys with the Empress and shows her his kindness in prescribing herbal potions and her defiant reply makes him toss his arm in frustration; the final eruption of the despot when the youngest prince dares to rear up with hate...

I wonder if any dysfunctional family that lives with a totally controlling father and experiences his insane fits of punishment can relate with the control and violence shown at the end. He tolerates the Empress because she is a princess and very decorative and the mother of his 2 younger sons, and he even tolerated silently her affair for a while, but he will not tolerate her efforts to usurp him publicly. I can predict that the Empress will die a slow and humiliating death unless she finds a way to kill herself first.

What I picked up very clearly is the subtle form of psychological cruelty that underlies the Chinese concept of revenge. Many long-standing cultures understand this form of torture very well which goes above and beyond killing a person. Think about the movie Jean De La Florette where the protagonist is slowly killed by the grinding labor of finding non-existing water. It is the slowly grinding down of a person's will through day-in and day-out abuse. See the daily poisoning of the Empress under the guise of caring for her health. See the impossible ending offer to the rebellious prince to choose between killing his own mother with regular offering of the herbal potion versus death under his father's hand - the prince decides to end his life to get out of this insane set of situation. He actually succeeds in comparison to the eldest prince who tries suicide the previous evening and fails to slice his own throat.

Yes, the Emperor is ultimately an evil man because he sacrifices all that he loves for his political ambition to be the boss, but he has his human dimensions: he is attracted as a man to the 2 women he loves most in his life, as seen in their rare intimate moments together and he loves the first son unconditionally... Personally, I think that the characters are very well developed because they are complex, obsessed and quite multi-dimensional in their basic human drives. They make sense within the constraints in which they are cast.

Tian di ying xiong (2003)

Interesting View of China's Silk Road in 700 A.D.

[8/10 · 4 February 2006]

This is not a Kung Fu action movie, so those looking for fight scenes will be disappointed. It is a thrilling story of two warrior knights acting under their own sense of honor and called to action in circumstances beyond their control, against the backdrop of the turbulent and multi-cultural Silk Road. China being the vast country it is has birthed many such thrilling adventures of wandering warriors, itinerant mercenaries, Buddhist monks and pretty maidens. Think of romance or adventure novels based on the Middle Ages! The thrill of the story is to watch the two warriors meeting, one supposedly as the imperial agent sent to eliminate the renegade and intent on his mission, the other as the free agent warrior trying to live a life according to his own personal code of honor. When the two of them unite to fight hordes of greedy bandits, we see hand to hand combat, pursuits on horseback and sieges of a fort.

The unusual angles in this movie, for most movie goers, comes from the time and place: the warriors are from 700 A.D, a T'ang Dynasty era. The location is in the far western reaches of China and the locales are not traditionally "Chinese". The landscapes change from mountainous to woodsy to desert. There are thrilling scenes of camel caravans and desert towns and forts. The protagonists wear battle gear and the long hair of that period, which remind me vividly of French and English knights and crusaders of that era! The final siege of the desert fort reminds of the male warrior bonding in desperado scenes like in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"; or the "Alamo"; or the "Three Musketeers".

The Buddhist relic transported by the caravan reminds me of the Catholic relics from dead saints found in many mystery or adventure stories based on the Middle Ages. The finale reminds me of the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when the bad guys seem to be on the edge of acquiring the treasure, only to be annihilated, leaving some of the good guys to move on...

It is great entertainment and gives one yet another view of the Chinese culture about warriors of its complex past.

Casanova (2005)

Fun and Witty Historical Romance

[9/10 · 16 January 2006]

I have never seen any earlier version of Casanova despite the fame. I had seen Heath Ledger and admired him before, but I always keep an open mind when I see a new movie and never compare an actor to previous roles. This movie was a cream puff, smart and romantic. The plot is done along the lines of old fashioned comedies (see Moliere and Shakespeare), with some cross-dressing of heroines, multiple mistaken identities, witty repartees, slapstick buffoonery of the villain in the play, etc. and a very modern heroine. Delightful! Heath Ledger tries hard to be both swashbuckling, suave and infatuated, a feat in itself; Sienna Miller is adorable as the spirited girl. The other actors are quite entertaining. I think the R rating applies primarily to the first few scenes with Casanova rolling around multiple beds and with a young nun.