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-
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.
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.
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! ^_^
