Curse of the Golden Flower (15)

Dir: Zhang Yimou, 2006, China, 114 mins, Mandarin with subtitles
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Liu Ye

Yimou’s latest wu xia (swordplay) epic bathes the screen in opulence. Its staggering sets, costumes and compositions of exquisite beauty cleverly mask the dark, disturbing emotions lurking underneath. While Hero (2003) was a meta-textual odyssey, and House of Flying Daggers (2004) a crowd-pleasing subversion of genre rules, Curse of the Golden Flower is a chamber piece wherein a dysfunctional family disintegrates – spectacularly. The Emperor (Yun Fat – a magnetic monster. Something new in the iconic actor’s repertoire) administers daily medicine, secretly poisoning his Empress (Li – luminous, in her reunion with Yimou), who pursued an affair with her stepson, Crown Prince Wan (Ye). The Empress’ obsession with embroidering golden chrysanthemums for the Chong Yang Festival is part of an elaborate scheme to stage a coup, aided by her devoted son Prince Jai (Canto-pop star Chou – imagine JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE opposite Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro and you’ll understand why Asian youngsters were excited, and critics underwhelmed).

A plodding set up, delivering plots, schemes and counter-plots via awkward exposition, gives way to a delirious second half. A spectacular pageant of gold-clad warriors, head-spinning revelations of jealousy, treachery and incest, heart-rending tragedy of near-Shakespearian dimensions and the scariest ninjas portrayed onscreen (except for choreographer Ching Siu Tung’s own Duel to the Death (1981)). Its mix of courtly intrigue and wistful romance is reminiscent of the wu xia classics of Chu Yuan. Yimou often places characters centre frame their lives desolate amidst baroque beauty. He weaves some subversive symbolism: the Chong Yang Festival traditionally celebrates positive energy and family, while chrysanthemums were used to detoxify and drive away evil.

Sadly, his efforts went unappreciated by Western critics who groaned “same old, same old…pretty pictures, no story.” Not so. English language culture favours the written/spoken word, sprung from theatre into high art cinema via Italian neo-realism, French New Wave and Dogme, while the action movie is populist entertainment. Asian culture is pictographic, celebrating gesture, symbolism, and action perfectly encapsulated in the wu xia (and its less fanciful Japanese cousin the chanbara), the sole film genre to develop outside Hollywood. Its dreamlike, visual-driven, storytelling is the root of Far Eastern cinema whether action, comedy or animation. Some people still struggle with that. Give the genre a chance and you’ll discover an exhilarating alternative cinema.

More than just “pretty pictures”, Curse of the Golden Flower’s story is as different from Hero and House of Flying Daggers as Rio Bravo (1959) is from The Searchers (1956): lies, hypocrisy, and petty resentments erupting into large scale tragedy. Adapted from a classic play, it occasionally feels starchy and stage bound, but the claustrophobic tone befits a story that gradually constricts its tragic heroes before concluding on an anguished scream. Lacking the wistful romanticism of its predecessors, it could struggle to find an audience but is worth seeing for its leads towering performances. As for the sumptuous visuals: Yimou is the Willy Wonka of eye-candy. You might just gouge out your eyeballs and lick them.

Andrew Pragasam