Curse of the Golden Flower

Once again, I was awed by yet another action movie from director Yimou Zhang. You may seen some of his other movies like House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, Raise the Red Lantern, etc. This guy puts out good stuff. This film centers around the royal family of China during the Tang dynasty. Like most Greek tragedies, this film doesn't end on a much happier note. Through lies, betrayal, plots and secrecy, the royal family collapses on itself leaving very few alive when everything's said and done. The emperor alone seems to be the only one who is untouchable. I think that's how it's supposed to be though. Even though he is the most powerful man in the empire, he is the loneliest because he can't let anyone get too close to him. I'm not going to go much deeper into the plot for fear of ruining this for anyone. I'm sure some people will/were disappointed with this film because they were expecting something action-packed from the trailer. You do get plenty of action, but not all the way through. I found the movie quite interesting and, as usual with Yimou Zhang, quite beautiful. I don't know if he is always behind the color schemes, artwork, scenery and costuming, but they are all breath-taking in the films of his I've watched. One thing I found out in the "extras" was they actually built the entire palace set. I assumed it was mostly green-screened due to its size and grandeur, but it was actually built. There was one part where Li Gong is talking about foreign tourists seeing the set and thinking they were crazy for building something of that magnitude. Speaking of which, you might recognize her from Memoirs of a Geisha. Hopefully you'll also recognize Yun-Fat Chow from movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Bulletproof Monk, Anna and the King, Replacement Killers, etc. One other thing that caught my eye were the weapons of some elite ninja fighters. I'm not expert on martial arts movies, but I feel like I've seen a few. These guys has scythe like swords with ropes attached. They would swing them around like grappling hooks and slice up their opponents. The epic-battle scene in the end was pretty amazing too. I was also pretty impressed with the immediately clean-up and how everything was "back to normal" afterwards. Hopefully I haven't spoiled anything for you. I highly suggest you check this one out.