Curse of the Golden Flower | 
| Director: Yimou Zhang
Actors: Yun-fat Chow, Li Gong, Jay Chou, Ye Liu, Dahong Ni
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy Used: $1.08
You Save: $13.86 (93%)
New (57) Used (91) Collectible (1) from $1.08
Rating:  137 reviews
Sales Rank: 11642
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Chinese (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 16726
UPC: 043396167261
EAN: 0043396167261
ASIN: B000MRA592
Theatrical Release Date: January 12, 2007
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
THE ILL-FATED ROMANCE BETWEEN AN IMPERIAL BODYGUARD & A PRINCE TAKES THE LOVERS ON A DANGEROUS JOURNEY WHERE ROYAL FAMILY SECRETS ARE REVEALED.
Amazon.com
Curse of the Golden Flower, a fictionalized historical glimpse into the brutally complicated politics of Emperor Ping's (Chow Yun Fat) reign during the Tang Dynasty, shows the viewer just how far a megalomaniac must go to gain and retain power in medieval China. Lavish sets, massive ceremonial displays, and perversely fascinating battle scenes impress similarly to the special effects Americans have come to love and expect from Chinese action films like Zhang Yimou's previous House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. An intricate plot involving the Emperor's wife, Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) and their three sons, Crown Prince Xiang, Prince Jie, and Prince Cheng, most closely follows the Empress's secret plan to force abdication upon her corrupt husband as revenge for his slowly poisoning her with Black Fungus tea. Opening on the eve of the Chysanthemum Festival, 928 A.D., the Empress obsessively embroiders gold chysanthemums to adorn her army's uniforms while hatching plans with Jai to overthrow the Crown Prince for control of the throne. Meanwhile, a side plot develops as the Emperor's ex-wife and mother to Crown Prince Yu reemerges as Yu's lover. By the time the Festival occurs, family members are pitted against each other in a King Lear-ian web of lies that can only result in demise. The most sophisticated narrative aspect of Curse of the Golden Flower is that as the royal family crumbles, the Emperor's death grip on China remains unwavering. Gorgeous scenes set in the palace and costume design displaying China's upper class decadence cannot fail to entertain. The paradox between good and evil, here, is highlighted by how the Emperor successfully rules despite, and because of, his utter cruelty. --Trinie Dalton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 132 more reviews...
 eye candy June 30, 2009
barrykk
This purchase was a requested gift for a friend...It is magnificently photographed with beautiful sets
 Worst Movie Nomination June 24, 2009
Gregory Parks (SFBay, California, USA)
This is one of my picks for the worst movie ever. I saw this movie in the theater. Trust me, I am the target audience for this movie. "Crouching Tiger" is one of my favorites. Chow Yun Fat I have admired in nearly every movie he has done from "The Killer" to "Anna and the King." I am also a big fan of martial arts movies including the historical fiction genre. Great examples of this are the Jet Li "Once Upon a Time in China" series. "Hero" was an extremely good movie. So, you have to understand that considering the cast, the subject matter, and the director, I should have fallen head over heels for this movie.
However, of course, I didn't.
There are just too many things wrong to list about this movie, so I will just point out a couple of the more disappointing aspects.
The costume design: Okay, maybe this shouldn't be my main concern, but this movie was nominated for an Oscar for best costume design. However, the extent of the design is all classical Chinese designs that we have seen time and time again. The key difference between this movie and others is that in their classical design they gave all the women tons of cleavage. Mind you, I'm a typical guy, and I don't mind cleavage, but I am also a movie guy and it distracted, if anything from the rest of the scenery.
The plot: This is definitely something to be concerned about. The story is so extremely convoluted. There is no subtlety. There is no artistically inspired devices to drive the plot. Everything is so disjointed that is seems like the characters are acting independently of any reason that the character might have for acting. But, mind you, there are plot twist that show up in order to explain some of the characters actions. But the plot twists are so sudden, leaving people wondering, "if this were so, then why would the person act this way previously. Shouldn't there have been a little something like 'foreshadowing'?" Seriously, my reaction to most of the plot devices was to physically cringe.
Okay, I don't really think there is much more reason for anyone to see this movie. I actually went to see this movie with my family because they wanted to see it. There was another movie that week that I wanted to see, but since I wanted to see this movie too, I agreed. After the movie was over, my family apologized to me for opting for their first choice over mine.
In the days that followed, I actively talked every person I could out of seeing the movie. Occasionally, I had to explain the story to someone in order for them to understand my horrified reaction. I successfully talked most everyone out of seeing it.
BUT, there is one thing I can say in favor of seeing this movie. Ever since seeing this movie, I have found in more difficult to dislike other movies. This movie has made me appreciate movie making in general, and given me a new found outlook on this form of entertainment. Seeing such a terrible movie like this, that doesn't even have charm of a cult classic, makes you more tolerant.
There have been many a time that while talking to a friend who hasn't seen this movie, they start complaining about some movie that they have seen. While I might agree with the complaint about that movie, I disagree with my friend on how bad was the movie. However, they can't quite understand my absolute frustration with this movie.
There is one thing to be said about the worst movie ever. It is not going to be a movie on a low budget that suffers from some deficit. While there are a lot of good low budget movies, the bads ones often suffer from being so low budget. Instead, though, the worst movie is going to be a big budget movie. One with the best stars, the best director, the best cast and crew, etc. And yet, turns out to be awful. To me, this movie falls into this category.
My recommendation: see this movie. The world will seem brighter, the sky bluer, and colors will be more lively.
A broken family, deceit within deceit, I loved it! June 19, 2009
C.S.J in Illinois (Elk Grove, IL)
This has become one of my favorite movies. The beauty of the cinematography, art and costumes is enough to catch anyone's attention. However, the true beauty lies within the story and acting. In my opinion, the entire film is an examination of balance, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, truths and falsehoods and most of all pride. Throw in some veangeance, hypocrisy and some dysfunction and you have me hooked.
Excellent film in my opinion.
 A little disappointing April 27, 2009
Jeffrey A. Thompson (Iowa City, IA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Chow Yun Fat is amazing. We usually see him as the outwardly tranquil, but troubled good guy. Here he plays a scheming, ruthless, sadistic emperor to perfection. I'm not sure why people would call this a martial arts movie. The focus is on the intrigue and the drama. The plot is convoluted. Seeing the movie multiple times would probably help. Zhang use of color and spectacle is impressive.
The problem with the movie is the battle scenes. They are too fantastic. All the palace intrigue works. It is a little over the top, but it is like Shakespeare: bigger-than-life people screw up their lives in bigger than life ways. The fight scenes just didn't do it for me. Too many fights are just too gravity defying. Another problem is that everybody knows martial arts in the movie. The final battle seem too grand. On the plus side, it is cool how they removed all traces of a very bloody battle for the festival the next day. One of the main themes of the movie is how the emperor holds the country together while his family is disintegrating. I have a another minor qualm: there is a lot of cleavage. At one point there were thousands of women dressed in low cut dresses in a court room. My friend from China told me that no Chinese woman would dress in such revealing clothing. The Chinese press took the director to task for the costumes.
The movie worked on several levels; however, it never really pulled me in. In some ways it was too over the top. It was too dramatic. I would probably watch it again. I checked it out from the libary. I'll probably watch it on TV sometime to see if it grows on me.
Visual Extravaganza April 19, 2009
Buho 1 (PA, USA)
A very good movie with lots of beautiful colored scenes. Honesty and betrayal, love and treachery are given center stage. The visual extravaganza of this production is along the lines of "Hero". It's eye candy.
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