Curse of the Golden Flower

To put a point to it, the lavish period costumes, operatic mise-en-scène and ceremonial grandeur of Curse of the Golden Flower clashes fatally with the nuanced nastiness of modern marital discord.

For all the swordplay and martial-arts fisticuffs, Curse is its most delirious as a lavish argument for the soap opera's roots in Greek tragedy.

This spectacularly decorated movie offers the enjoyment of watching Zhang chronicle the lives of one very nutty family. It also allows Zhang to load every inch of the screen with images so full that you half expect them to collapse under their own weight.

Curse is straightforward and solemn, lacking not for spectacle but for humor and a humanizing touch.

Make no mistake, all is epic, violent, bloody madness once the director hits his stride, and fans of Zhang's work will not want to miss Curse of the Golden Flower. But brush strokes are amiss here.

The melodrama here is of a sort seldom taken seriously outside Shakespeare's tragedies, and the final body count rivals Hamlet in its royal bloodletting.

Lavish, grim, magnificent; a robust successor to Zhang's recent martial arts epics, characterised by similarly baroque spectacle and tragedy.

Zhang Yimou serves up a sumptuous sensory feast with spectacular set pieces and--crucially--the story, characters, and connection to back it up.

Zhang's beauty is one of furious defiance

Um épico que não apenas se encaixa no clima mítico e fantástico do gênero wuxia pian como ainda traz toques claramente shakespeareanos em sua trama repleta de traições e lutas sangrentas por um trono real (ou, neste caso, imperial).

Mucho brillo y color y poca sustancia dramática en esta tragedia épica que emula tanto a Shakespeare como a Kurosawa. Vale la pena sólo por su aspecto visual y, sobre todo, por la siempre intensa Gong Li.

Spectacular production designs and giant CGI battles can't really disguise a soap opera plot and often hammy acting.