Beautiful, but depressing. Normally, people go to the movies to be entertained. My experience with Curse of the Golden Flower was different. Oh well, I guess movies like this help me appreciate happy endings in other films. At the start of the film, we learn that the ancient Chinese Emperor Ping (Yun-Fat Chow) has arranged to have his wife (Li Gong) put to death. She has an odd illness which has weakened her over the years, and the Emperor will take advantage of this. He has told his doctor (Dahong Ni) to add a new ingredient of black tar to her daily medicine. This will cause her to slowly go insane and lose control of herself. His wife isn't stupid, however, and soon learns of this plot. Now, she and her son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou), intend to dethrone the wicked Emperor and his spoiled son Crown Prince Wan (Ye Liu) and install justice. Things are complicated, and nothing is clear until the end. The footage in this film is beautiful, showing a glorified Forbidden City on the eve of the sacred Crysanthemum Festival. There is some violence, some swearing, and some sexual themes. It all adds up to a spectacular film. The dialogue is actually in Chinese, so people who hate reading subtitles or dubbing their movies probably won't enjoy this as much. Curse of the Golden Flower blows most other foreign films out of the water; see it today!
