From the director of Hero and House Of Flying Daggers comes this ambitious account of the epic power struggle between an Emperor, his Queen, and their three sons.
Set in China during the Tang Dynasty of the 10th century on the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou). His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress (Gong Li), this seems disingenuous.
For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor’s daughter.
Meanwhile, Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows worried over the Empress’s health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. Could she be headed down an ominous path? The Emperor harbours equally clandestine plans; the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) is the only one privy to his machinations.
When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor’s family from the Palace to a remote area. While they are en route, mysterious assassins attack them. Chan and her mother, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin) are forced back to the palace.
Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of dark surprises. Amid the glamour and grandeur of the festival, ugly secrets are revealed. As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armoured warriors charge the palace. Who is behind this brutal rebellion? Where do Prince Jai’s loyalties lie? Between love and desire, is there a final winner? Against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace.
This beautiful-looking period drama is directed by Zhang Yimou and with a budget of $45 million; it has become the most expensive Chinese film to date, surpassing Chen Kaige’s The Promise.
Curse Of The Golden Flower will be showing in your local cinema this April.
See the trailers in High Definition here
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Yink says:
Gong Li was in memoirs of a geisha and she did a really good job. Looking forward to seeing this looks awesome so far, and the budget is pretty crazy specially since crouching tiger was only a 20 mill production, but this has lots more gold in it ^_^
This director also directed Hero which is an amazing movie, visually stunning, this looks set to follow in its foot steps.
Jan 24, 2007, 4:12 pm