Curse of the Golden Flower

Curse of the Golden Flower is the latest film from acclaimed director Zhang Yimou, the man behind elegant martial arts epics such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers. With a riveting dramatic story set during China’s Tang Dynasty and intense action sequences done in a darkly beautiful style, the film is more than an ample treat for the eyes and ears.

Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat play the feuding Empress and Emperor of the nation respectively. Both of the unhappy spouses concoct plans against the other and an all out family feud emerges with tons of twists and surprises. Curse is much more of a straight drama than Zhang’s more high profile films. Much of the movie is packed with wicked manipulations and vicious rivalries amongst the members of the Emperor’s own family. There’s much less fighting and much more character interplay, which makes for something different but a tad disappointing. There was such a thrill to be had with the overwhelmingly beautiful fight sequences in both Hero and Daggers. Here the violence is brief and unpleasant. Zhang handles it all with a masterful eye and there is a twisted beauty to his perfectly choreographed battle sequences, but it’s just not the same as in his past films where characters sliced each other while twirling through trees or prancing across water. Those fights had solid rhythms and dazzling, poetic visual lyricism. Curse is a much more grounded and disheartening experience, but it still musters enough high quality drama and carnage to make for something truly involving and ambitiously hard hearted. The softness of Zhang’s fight style has been tampered with and altered to reproduce violence that feels as brutal as it really would be under actual circumstances. It’s nice to see a fight film with such sophistication, but I had slightly higher hopes for this movie. Despite all its positive attributes, it comes off feeling somewhat stagnant and unremarkable. The pieces are all impressive, but they don’t quite come together in a way that really leaves a mark. That’s not to say that it is not at all a good film. It’s quite good and highly enjoyable. There’s just something a little too average about it and honestly not too much that really carries any sort of exceptional potency. It’s a minor little flesh wound of a movie that impacts you briefly, but ceases to be memorable after it’s gone.

Grade: B