Curse of the Golden Flower

Rating:	★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

Perhaps it is a sign of the times, but in my view, “Curse of the Golden Flower” was underwhelming. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by previous martial arts epics like “Hero,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Kung-fu Hustle” or even “Fearless”, but I was expecting a lot out of director Zhang Yimou’s latest effort. The trailers promised an epic on a huge scale, with warrior armies clashing wearing colorful standards and bludgeoning one another when not engaging in martial arts. Instead, I saw a clearly dysfunctional imperial family who couldn’t work out their issues in private and instead did it on a grand scale.

Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) is sick. She’s been taking medicine that her husband, Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-Fat) has ordered her to take, but she’s feeling even weaker than before. She’s also got a secret: she’s been having an illicit affair with her stepson, Prince Wan (Liu Ye). The prince is in love with Chan (Li Man) and feels he is unfit to rule once the emperor dies. The emperors’ other two sons, Jai (Jay Chou) and Yu (Qin Junjie) also have a stake in the dangerous game between the empress and the emperor. Each maneuvers themselves for a shot at emerging victorious and ruling China.

In a film such as this, the first thing that must be commended, as always, is the production design. The vibrant colors in and around the palace, as well as the costumes of the actors clearly add to the depth of the film. Sadly, they may be the only thing adding any depth to this film. For a movie that has been clearly packaged as a “martial arts” film, it took the filmmakers a large amount of time to even get to a single fight scene! The plot plodded along ever slowly, I found myself falling asleep in Jo’s den while awaiting the first punch to be thrown. Granted that Gong Li is as breathtakingly beautiful as ever and that Chow Yun-Fat still commands a great imperial presence onscreen, I wanted my action, dammit!

Yes, all the costumes and pretty colors were very impressive. When they finally got around to fighting, I was amped for it, I was excited! Sadly, the film just fell flat on it’s face. I don’t know, maybe I was hoping we’d have a Yuen Woo-ping type of fight with invisible wires and slo-motion action. But what “Golden Flower” gave us was pretty straightforward swordsmanship and a few martial arts poses. After director Zhang’s fantastic “Hero” in 2002, I was a bit disappointed in 2004’s “House of Flying Daggers”. I can add “Curse of the Golden Flower” to his disappointments.

What is it with martial arts movies these days? Jo and I caught “The Banquet” a few months back, and that also had incestuous relations or semi-incestuous relations between Chinese royals. I mean, that’s gross enough as it is, but the least they could have done was given us some memorable fight scenes! It’s been a few days since I saw “Golden Flower”, and I can’t really recall any fight scene that got me jumping. Such a shame for such a promising trailer.