Curse of the Golden Flower [Blu-ray]

Yun Fat Chow

Overview

A dying love between two powerful people leads to deceit, infidelity, and conspiracy in this epic-scale historical drama from director Zhang Yimou. During the latter days of the Tang dynasty, the Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) returns home from the war with his son Prince Jai (Jay Chou) in tow. However, the monarch gets a chilly reception from the Empress (Gong Li); though she's eager to see her son, her marriage has become deeply acrimonious, and she's taken a lover, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson from the Emperor's first marriage. The Emperor, meanwhile, has his own plan for dealing with his failing marriage -- he's ordered the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) to find an exotic drug that will drive the Empress insane and administer it to her without her knowledge. However, the doctor's ethical dilemma is intensified by the fact his daughter Chan (Li Man) has fallen in love with Crown Prince Wan and the two wish to elope. As the Emperor and Empress allow their estrangement to sink into violence and retribution, their youngest son, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie), struggles to keep the peace in the household. Curse of the Golden Flower (aka Man Cheng Jim Dai Huang Jin Jia) received its North American premiere at the 2006 American Film Institute Los Angeles Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/29/2007
UPC:	0043396179134
Original Release:	2006
Rating:	R
Source:	Sony Pictures
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:54:00
Sales rank:	6,401

Special Features

Secrets within: Making-of featurette; Los Angeles premiere

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ni Dahong	Imperial Doctor
Chow Yun-Fat	Emperor
Man Li	Chan,Actor
Ye Liu	Crown Prince Wan
Chen Jin	Imperial Doctor's Wife
Qin Junjie	Prince Yu
Dahong Ni	Imperial Physician Jiang
Aaron C. Shang	Prince Liang
Bai Feng	Performer
Chen Xiaoyi	Actor
Yun Fat Chow	Actor
Yuri Lowenthal	Voices
Li Man	Jang Chan
Guo Changhui	Actor
Feng Bai	Actor
Li Ming	Actor
Guo Jiukong	Actor
Wang Cong	Actor
Chen Xinhua	Actor
Hong Zonghan	Actor
Feng Dinghong	Actor
Sun Menging	Actor
Zhang Shihan	Actor
Hou Jingkun	Actor
Song Huiru	Actor
Li Yufei	Actor
Zhang Jiao	Actor
Ge Dan	Actor
Li Shuang	Actor
Liu Shanshan	Actor
Zhang Jihang	Actor
Liu Wanting	Actor
Wang Lanqi	Actor
Hu Pan	Actor
Yu Tingting	Actor
Li Sisi	Actor
Zhang Yu	Actor
Liu Yang	Actor
Li Lu	Actor
Li Jingfei	Actor
Ai Lisen	Actor
Xi Sailan	Actor
Yang Ziu-Neng	Actor
Liu Weijie	Actor
Zhang Wen	Actor
Liu Shabai	Actor
Liu Xiaohui	Actor
Shu Aiqin	Actor
Zeng Yali	Actor
Li Junxi	Actor
Li Xianjie	Actor
Wang Jinbo	Actor
Sun Quan	Actor
Li Yang	Actor
Zhu Guarangyu	Actor
Yang Zeyu	Actor
Wang Xingye	Actor
Gao Yudong	Actor
Jiang Houli	Actor
Li Geng	Actor
Liu Zhengeng	Actor
Liu Lianyuan	Actor
Shi Renshan	Actor
Jiao Lianshi	Actor
Cong Shusheng	Actor
Ling Daiying	Actor
Shigeru Umebayashi	Composer
Wang Hongsheng	Actor
Zhang Hua	Actor
Huo Guangxi	Actor
Liu Chunyu	Actor
Sheng Honglin	Actor
Zhang Yide	Actor
Zhang Ziaoqing	Actor
Shi Chuan	Actor
Mao Yangming	Actor
Chen Ji	Actor

Technical Credits

Wu Nan

Bian Zhihong

Yu Cao

Zhang Yimou

Wang Bin

Yun Fat Chow	Director
Li Gong	Director
Jay Chou	Director
Ye Liu	Director
Dahong Ni	Director
Zhang Weiping	Producer
Wu Nan	Screenwriter
Bian Zhihong	Screenwriter
Yu Cao	Screenwriter
Xue Han	Sound Effects
Zhang Yimou	Screenwriter
William Kong	Producer
Wang Bin	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Curse of the Golden Flower has its work cut out for it in terms of audience expectations. It will disappoint viewers hoping for Chow Yun-Fat to take them on a high-kicking martial arts thrill ride, but if you go into the movie expecting more of a Shakespearian tragedy than a wushu adventure, this epic tale is sure to impress. While it's true that Golden Flower can feel stilted and murky compared to director Zhang Yimou's more enthralling movies like Hero and Raise the Red Lantern, it's still an incredibly textured, multi-dimensional narrative. The opulent costumes and art direction are dazzling enough to keep you transfixed, but as brooding as the mood can be, the story is still eloquent and moving. The twists and turns of who is double crossing whom can get a little confusing, but the film still manages to gracefully run the gamut from an intimate melodrama to a symbolic yarn about human nature. Both of these readings hinge on a plot about a tenth century Chinese royal family that struggles within the confines of the extremely insulated palace through poisonings, attempted coups, and possibly incestuous affairs. All that drama might sound a little too much like a soap opera, and sometimes it is, but the emphasis is on the opera. This is a larger-than-life fable about how the power and isolation of courtly life removes all frame of reference from the lives of royals, so that destructive acts of greater and greater excess and insanity become reasonable. Zhang does an excellent job of imparting that sequestered feeling, making the viewer feel just as confined as the characters, who are almost never depicted outside the narrow corridors, paper-thin walls, and overwhelming ornamentation of the palace. This is the same isolation that fuels a story like Hamlet, where only after their warped hate and paranoia leads most of the characters to kill each other off does the absurdity of the last two bloody hours hit home. While a literal translation of the film's original Chinese title is something along the lines of "The Whole City Is Covered in Golden Armor," the American-release title of the film is extremely telling with regard to the story's meaning. The gold chrysanthemum was a flower symbolic of nobleness and royalty in ancient China, and thus the inherent calamity, betrayal, and misfortune that befall those who wear the crown could easily be called the curse of the golden flower. It's a familiar tale, but a good one, especially when told with such style.