I have been a
fan of the martial arts costume drama for years now, and have
come to love the spectacle of Zhang Yimou's films. Whether
it is the action packed Hero or the actionless but
dramatic Raise the Red Lantern, or something in between,
he has rarely disappointed. Until now. Not that Curse
of the Golden Flower isn't a good film, because it is,
it just doesn't live up to the standard Zhang has set for
himself up to this point.
Curse
centers around the secrets and betrayals of the Empirial family
in Tang Dynasty China. As the annual Chrysanthemum Festival
approaches, the political and personal relationships between
the members of the family all fall into place for the final
confrontation. For weeks Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-Fat) has been
giving his second wife, Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) small doses
of a deadly poison in her hourly medicine. Completely aware
of the situation, she confides in her eldest son, and second
to the throne, Prince Jai (Jay Chou), and asks him for his
support. Her secret lover, Crown Prince Wan (Lui Ye), her
husband's eldest son from his first wife, has been seeing
one of the palace's servant girls, Jiang Chan (Li Man), but
when it is discovered that her father is the one making the
Empress' poison, her whole family is banished. As if that
weren't enough, one can add to the mix the youngest son of
Emperor Ping, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie) who is always vying for
some attention and recognition.
As you can tell
from just this basic setup, it's a very complicated plot,
and it only gets more convoluted as the story progresses.
In many ways, this is the downfall of the film. Following
the natural progression of increased plot intricacies from
Hero to House of Flying Daggers, it has
now reached a level where one almost has to take breaks from
the film to gather the most recent developments and process
them before moving on.
If the plot weren't
already too much, Zhang piles it on with a completely overindulgent
style, even more outrageous than the visuals in his previous
movies. He spends more time creating and relishing in the
stunning visuals, fanciful and overwhelming colors, and spectacular
art direction than ever before. And each of these elements
is top-notch on their own. But thrown together all at the
same time causes a virtual sensory overload for the viewer.
Try concentrating on the plot with all of this coming at you,
and you'll think you're the one who's been drinking the poison
for weeks.
I don't want to
be too critical of the film, because I really enjoyed what
parts of it weren't screaming at me to notice them. Some of
these parts were even more stunning than the costumes and
set design, such as the ambush on Jiang's family by a band
of flying assassins. I wish, though, that Zhang had been able
to take a step back from his lofty visions and give more of
this martial arts spectacle and less interpersonal betrayal.
Even the passion that was so palpable in Daggers
is missing here, and it's a real shame, because the premise
lends itself so well for this type of romance, had that been
the direction the film chose to take.
In the end, Curse
of the Golden Flower is a huge load to handle, and ultimately
too much to thoroughly enjoy. Overindulgent costumes, sets and
cinematgraphy do the opposite of their intended purpose of enhancing
the film, and detract from its overall effectiveness. The plot
is too full of incest (two different counts) and political intrigue,
which would normally not be so bad, if it weren't in exactly
the kind of movie that I wanted to watch passively (as one should
with any good martial arts flic) and not think too much about.
Perhaps it's time for Zhang to take another turn in his long
and winding career, and head away from his recent path of ever-more-extravagant
kung fu epics, and go back to the intimate dramas that made
him famous in the first place.
