Dahong Ni, Jay Chou, Li Gong

During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, inclu...( read more  read more... )ding the royal family itself.

Flixster Users

68% liked it

14,743 ratings

Critics

65% liked it

117 critics

R, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Yimou Zhang

Release Date: December 31, 2007

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DVD Release Date: March 27, 2007

Stats: 5,181 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (5,181)


  • October 1, 2009
    It?s no House of flying daggers but stick with it and this film gets good.
  • August 11, 2009
    no surprise dat da film would be beautiful. pretty fucked up doh.
  • June 26, 2009
    Wow, what a visually amazing work of cinematography. And talk about your proverbial cast of thousands. The climactic battle scene is just beyond epic. I don't think I've ever seen war portrayed quite this way. A very fluid mass of humanity pours across the screen, like two li...( read more)quids, oil and water maybe, jockeying for position.

    I love both Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li, and they do not disappoint as the two heavyweight fighters exchanging power punches in a battle of wills. Love and hate, jealousy, intrigue, poisoning, murder, incest, fratricide -- this is Greek tragedy, this is Shakespeare, this is all kinds of hallmark tragic traditions rolled into one pretty tight script. Definitely worth seeing.

  • January 22, 2009
    The Curse Of The Golden Flower is a historical epic starring Chow Yun-Fat as a Chinese emperor who rules both his lands and family with an iron fist. A plot to assassinate his empress results in an attempted coup to wrest power from his grasp. This story has a lot of potential fo...( read more)r political machinations, scheming and the kind of epic, heroic battles you'd expect from Zhang Yimou. The costumes and sets are of a scale and splendour it is impossible to ignore and his eye for aesthetic beauty is as evident as ever. But it seemed to me that the actors had been demoted to nothing more than elaborate mannequins on which to hang these incredible creations, arranged to make the most attractively composed images, rather than to facilitate the narrative or create empathy or even interest for the viewer. The characters and their relationships are barely fleshed out, and I never felt I'd got to know any of them or their personal motivations at all. Gong Li is the only one to wrest any screen time away from her sumptuous surroundings and she was always fighting a losing battle for attention with her quite hypnotic cleavage. I think Zhang was trying to create a Shakespearean tragedy, but his eye was so unwaveringly concerned with the style of the film rather than the substance, the result is little more than a collection of pretty pictures.
  • December 30, 2008
    This story makes some of Shakespeare's more bloddy works, seem like a Harlequin romance novel!

    Murder, intrigue, deceit and treachery abound in this visually stunning film.

    You need only look at the cast to get a feel for what awaits you. But nothing can prepare you for ...( read more)the beauty of the sets and costumes that will overwhelm your senses.

    Be forwarned that while there are some great fight scenes and excellent special effects...that is not the main focus of this film. It is first and foremost a powerful character drama.
  • November 5, 2009
    Quite possibly the most visually stunning film I have ever seen. You know what to expect from a Yimou Zhang film.
  • October 14, 2009
    Good acting, good effects, good cinematography, interesting story... Overall good movie.
  • October 12, 2009
    Just as impressive as the other Yimou Zhang's movies
  • October 4, 2009
    The wuxia genre continues to give birth to films, and this is the lowest spot the genre has fallen. The extraordinary imagery as colorful as a rainbow, the astonishing costume design and the artistic editing typical of Yimou Zhang are still present, but the substance and the orig...( read more)inality have completely disappeared. The plot is not engaging and without Yuen Woo-Ping behind the battle scenes, the only thing left is a gorgeous cinematography and a visual spectacle with no powerful substance behind it. Yimou, I'm still giving you another chance...

    65/100
  • October 2, 2009
    The film is visually stunning. The set looks amazing and all the dresses, armours and props look spectacular. Zhang Yimou is a Visual Genius, so it's no surprise that this film is a good looking one. The cast all perform well except for Jay Chou. I think he should stick with sing...( read more)ing and not act at all, he's terrible at it. Gong Li looks beautiful in this film. The story's good and so is the screenplay. The fight scenes were good but not great. They still looked good though. So, what can I say about this. It's a Zhang Yimou film, so you know it will be a visually dynamic film. The cast is good except for Jay Chou and the plot is nice. If you're a fan of the director's work, I'd highly recommend it.

Critic Reviews


January 12, 2007
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

If looks were all it took to thrill, this opulent, near-operatic historical pageant would rank with Zhang Yimou's last two epics. full review

December 29, 2006
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

...A spectacle for the eyes and for the soul. full review

December 28, 2006
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Director Zhang Yimou is aiming for glorious visual, kinetic and emotional overload, and he delivers the goods. full review

December 22, 2006
Pete Hammond, Maxim

Eye-popping. One of the year's most spectacularly visual treats. It has wide-screen images that are beyond astounding. full review

December 22, 2006
Claudia Puig, USA Today

The year's most operatic and visually lavish film. full review

December 22, 2006
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

Amidst all of this excess, an actor can too easily disappear, or be reduced to a hanger for a costume. But Gong Li, the standout in the cast, does wonders with her melodramatic role. full review

December 22, 2006
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Instead of transporting awe, the viewer groans under the weight of Zhang's self-conscious cinematic one-upmanship. full review

December 1, 2006
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Li...prov[es] so over-the-top imperial that she almost singlehandedly elevates the film's heightened drama into something epic. full review

View more Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (Curse of the Golden Flower) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • WrellikW
    July 25, 2008
    The movie was a 4 star movie, but the colors and sets were a 6 star movie, thus, 5 stars. It's amazing, because they built a life-size set to film this movie and all the rich colors were hand cut crystal; amazing! I recommend it just for the colors alone.

    Take care all,
    William
    Zzzzzzooooommmmmm!

    "It is easy to be brave, from a distance." -American Indian Proverb-
  • robfromthenorth
    September 11, 2007
    The rich colours and a hand-full of good fight scenes fail to raise this film to the standards of previous films by Zhang.

    In a word this film is mediocre.
  • Donegal
    July 5, 2007
    I love Chinese films. The people are so wonderfully superhuman, and the way that everything moves is so graceful and purposeful (I hope that makes sense to anyone else). Everything is so, in a word, beautiful.

    Also, I love Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat, they're both amazing actors.

    As for the story itself, I found myself rooting for almost everyone (even though they had conflicting interests). The only person I was against in the entire story was the emporer, and even he had his moments where I felt for him (like when one of his sons killed the other). Even though most of the characters have done something "bad" I still felt a connection to their story and a hope for them.
  • katherineychen
    January 5, 2007
    The colors in this movie are beautiful, as with all of Zhang Yimou's films. There's a lot of symbolism in the movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. There is a scene at the end where the medicine is tossed, and it falls on the golden table, revealing the disgusting rot that lies beneath all the glamour and gold. It was very symbolic of the family itself. There are also a few other instances of hidden meanings that were very intriguing. Go see the movie! ^_^

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