Zhang Yimou's palace intrigue melodrama "Curse of the Golden Flower” bursts with psychedelic beauty and balletic violence, and the strong performances by two of China's greatest actors, Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat, should make this film from the director of "House of Flying Daggers” and "Hero” a sure thing. But while Zhang fills the screen with the sumptuous beauty he brought to "Ju Dou” and "Raise the Red Lantern,” the story is an unworthy foundation for the director's colorful pyrotechnics.
Gong stars as Empress Phoenix, the second wife of the surly and manipulative Emperor Ping (Chow). For 10 years, Ping has prescribed a medicine for his wife's anemia, but the introduction of a new ingredient and its negative effects cause the empress to question her treatment. This development is only part of the grand tapestry of betrayal and mayhem in this royal family — the empress' ongoing affair with Prince Wan (Liu Ye), Ping's son from a first marriage, is on the rocks because Wan has taken up with the court physician's daughter, who is complicit in devising the empress' "treatment.” Ping is also keeping a trove of secrets that could be revealed indirectly by his wife's deadly medicinal regimen.
Empress Phoenix mulls a palace coup that would benefit her oldest son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou), hires a spy to determine whether she is being poisoned, and learns that her investigator has her own sad reasons for revealing the emperor's machinations. Ping eventually learns that his schemes are coming to the surface, and he sets into motion revelations of betrayal, murder and incest, culminating in a full-scale battle at the beginning of China's Chrysanthemum Festival.
Zhang deploys every ornate visual weapon from his cinematic arsenal in "Curse of the Golden Flower,” adorning the emperor's palace interior with enough gold and jewels to make Versailles look like an Amish farmhouse. The action is similarly baroque: black-clad, acrobatic assassins wielding deadly scythes swarm through valleys, defying gravity with their breathtaking rappelling. And the final battle scene is an impressively bloody technical achievement, but the execution of the story line, cribbed from Chinese playwright Cao Yu's "Thunderstorm,” is disappointingly routine. Zhang telegraphs the outcome nearly from the start.
Still, Gong and Chow are not to be dismissed. Both actors are fascinating to watch, especially Gong, a longtime muse for Zhang who made her debut in the director's first film, 1987's "Red Sorghum.” The actress was recently miscast in Michael Mann's dreadful film adaptation of "Miami Vice,” but in "Curse,” Gong is riveting as a matriarch being driven insane by her paranoia and her husband's creative chemistry. "Curse of the Golden Flower” fails to germinate, but as a showcase for this beautifully maturing actress, all that gold and finery frames Gong perfectly.
— George Lang
