Curse of the Golden Flower

The visuals are mesmerizing, and the plot promising, but the screenplay is horrible to death. It all might be a little kitsch and laughable, but flaws and all, its quite entertaining and showcases Gong Li's terrific screen persona.

There's something missing here. It's got no zip, no spark, no soul to it. As a story, it's a passable Shakespearean melodrama, but one with almost no surprises and little nuance. However, I have to give Zhang props for his command of the spectacular. Just about every shot is a money shot, bursting with color and elaborate design and pageantry (and, good heavens, cleavage). Lots of vast spaces and huge crowds of people. This film is technically impressive, but overall too shallow and empty.

If his other films were style over substance, this is the film where substance never even made it to the dance, because style beat it to death on its doorstep. Generally abysmal.

Uninteresting plot with forgettable action that comes far too little too late.

So... much... cleavage...

A gorgeously shot film about an ancient China royal family plagued by jelousy, hatred and incest.

Kinda reminded me of a Chinese version of The Lion in Winter, except not nearly as good. Although it WAS prettier.

Even master director sometimes makes mistakes...

Very beautiful and dark. Some great action sequences, a good plot, incredible visuals and detailed characters = One rollercoaster of a film!

Beautiful imagery, but sub-par plot and pacing.

The visuals were nothing short of gorgeous, and the acting, music and pacing was all great. Still, the plot could have been stronger, maybe more emphasis on the 2nd son seeing how vital he'd be in the climax, or a final showdown between him and the Emperor. I also didn't get why exactly he's poisoning his 2nd wife and how the 1st escaped jail, but the battle sequences and tragic conclusion were potent enough to make up the difference.

Super epic Hamlet-esque Asian family drama, with plenty of cool violence. Scythe-wielding Ninja army traveling by ropes! Sets and costumes for the win!

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The weakest entry in Zhang's wuxia cycle.

Gorgeous to look at, but the story is a little bit predictable Shakespearian tragedy. Sumptuous visuals, and how can you not love Gong Li in a tight push up dress walking really fast for long takes?

It doesn't use its stylization as cleverly as Hero did, but it's a substantial improvement over Flying Daggers. It returns to some of the issues of beauty, form, and truth as in those two film, but is structurally the simplest of the three.

This film features lots of impressive martial arts style, well choreographed fighting, large scale battles and its certainly lavishly stylish. Thematically its about jealousy, infidelity and anger. Its a bit hard to follow the plot in its entirety but its an entertaining watch regardless.

Your usual Chinese movie - it's impossible to understand what is going on the screen while all the characters keep dying. Classic.

BABY MAMA DRAMA

#18#, rw4, gp-fav, oldies(2) }*{ #11#, story, creator Zhang!, G.Li!!, Chow.Y-F!.

The plot had potential but it eventually ended up dragging on way too much and the screenplay became awfully melodramatic. However, the fight scenes were great and the huge ass battle at the end made watching through all the melodrama almost worth it.

The digital effects here are just a little too artificial looking beside the practically created spectacle of Hero.

So, what was the point of all that?

Politics, love and power struggles in 10th century China. Great stuff.

Dear Zhang Yimou: Style does not compensate horrid substance. You used to know this.

Gorkemli Cin Imparatorlugunun sasaali yapisini yansitarak basarili bir gorsel sunuyor. Hikaye olarak ise fena degil.

Come on, can it be more stupid?

film çok özenli bezenli, hikaye kuruşu da hoş ama bir o kadar da muhafazakâr

Looks amazing, but a fairly dull narrative despite the visuals. The fighting is represented in such a stylised manner that it doesn't have that to provide an alternate attraction to make up for the simplistic plot.

Great premise, amazing set design and costume, but just a bit too slow.

psychedelically colorful action breasts

68.500

More like CURSE OF THE OVEREXTENSION OF ONE DIRECTOR IN A LIMITED GENRE! Some good visuals and action is present, but the characters never fully BLOOM into people you care about!

eng

she me dong xi!?!?!?!?!? WE NOT FFIGHTS WITH SWWWOOOOOOORRRRRRDDDDDD, use toxin

This film reminds me of a traditional Chinese stage play or Japanese kabuki theater and I believe this is where Yimou Zhang drew a lot of his inspiration for the look and feel of the film. Unfortunately the type of melodramatic acting required for that sort of atmosphere doesn't work as well in a film. I suppose the reality in which the film wants to immerse us in isn't defined well enough. Still beautiful if not unsure of itself.

I know people have problems with the extreme hyperreality and melodrama of the plot/screenplay, but I think there's some method to Zhang Yimou's madness. There is a conflict here between facade/decorum and truth/emotion, and the screenplay (along with the amazing visual design) do the themes justice.

Best Yimou? u kno in the it's so over the top dumb it's good way

Unquestionably stunning from a custom design standpoint, the movies succeeds visually in ways that many similar movies fail to match. However, the story is decent but arguably a bit more simplistic and weaker to some extent, perhaps limiting the ultimate potential of this entertaining visual feast.

What a waste of beautiful flowers and beautiful people

The beautiful sets and costumes makes this one of the most visual pleasing films I've had the joy to see.The plot kept me engaged and was well done if a little bit slow at times.The acting by all the main characters was very well done and drew me into there characters.The battle scenes while a little unrealistic and a bit jarring with how the rest of the film was done were good.

Garish soap opera which redeems itself slightly in the last act.

"Zhang Yimou moves ever closer to grand opera with Curse of the Golden Flower, though this garish familial melodrama-cum-action extravaganza plays better in retrospect than it does in the moment." - Keith Uhlich

Stunning visuals.

Beautiful customes and great performance by the actors.

Gorgeous costume design and sets keep you entertained for only so long. Group power and obedience look damn cool (yei, communism..) but a movie shouldn't relay purely on eye-candy. One thing became clearer after this movie though, I'd rather be a ninja than a pirate any day!

65.500

Apart from absolutely outstanding art direction and costume design, Curse of the Golden Flower left me feeling underwhelmed. The ending was also a nice step away from the traditional. Overall though, the film relies too heavily on creating a sense of mystery around the Emperor's family and past, but never coalesces all of the storylines together in a particularly profound way.

Great visuals and scenery. Poor and obvious plot. Overacting acting.

Gong Li is wonderful. Good with, "portraits of a day in the palace" and visual quality. But the script was not good at all.

Very strong film

Beautiful visuals. A bit slow in the plot department.

A painstaking composition that weaves overwhelming spectacle with delicate subtlety. This is not Hero, and it's certainly not Flying Daggers. It is more like a hearkening back to Yimou's earliest work, like Ju Dou. There are gargantuan battle sequences, greased-lightning swordfights, even flying ninjas, but they do not lie at the heart of the film. What does is the stultifying oppression of absolute power, depicted as a labor of love and a unique, genre-bending, purely visual piece of cinema.