Curse of the Golden Flower

For the Jay Chou extended play album, see Curse of the Golden Flower (EP).
Curse of the Golden Flower

Theatrical release poster
Traditional 滿城盡帶黃金甲
Simplified 满城尽带黄金甲
Mandarin Mǎnchéng Jìndài Huángjīnjiǎ
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Produced by William Kong
Zhang Weiping
Zhang Yimou
Written by Zhang Yimou
Based on Thunderstorm
by Cao Yu
Starring Chow Yun-fat
Gong Li
Jay Chou
Qin Junjie
Music by Shigeru Umebayashi
Cinematography Zhao Xiaoding
Production
company
Edko Film
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • December 21, 2006 (2006-12-21)
Running time
 114 minutes
Country China
Language Mandarin
Budget $45 million
Box office $78,568,977

Curse of the Golden Flower (Chinese: 滿城盡帶黃金甲; pinyin: Mǎnchéngjìndàihuángjīnjiǎ) is a 2006 Chinese epic wuxia drama film written and directed by Zhang Yimou. The Mandarin Chinese title of the movie is taken from the last line of Qi Dynasty poem written by the rebel leader Emperor Huang Chao who was also the Emperor of the Qi Dynasty that was at war against the Later Tang Dynasty.

With a budget of US$45 million, it was at the time of its release the most expensive Chinese film to date, surpassing Chen Kaige's The Promise.[1] It was chosen as China's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2006;[2] but did not receive the nomination. The film was, however, nominated for Costume Design. In 2007 it received fourteen nominations at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards and won Best Actress for Gong Li, Best Art Direction, Best Costume and Make Up Design and Best Original Film Song for "菊花台" (Chrysanthemum Terrace) by Jay Chou.[3]

The plot is based on Cao Yu's 1934 play Thunderstorm (雷雨 pinyin: Léiyǔ), but is set in the Imperial court in ancient China.

Plot

On the eve of Double Ninth, the Emperor (Chow Yun-fat) and his second son Prince Jai (Jay Chou) return from their military campaign to Nanjing, so they can celebrate the holiday with their family. The Empress has been in an affair with her stepson, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), who was born of the Emperor's first wife. Crown Prince Wan, meanwhile, is planning to reject the throne so he can run away with his secret lover, Jiang Chan (Li Man), the daughter of the Imperial Doctor. Prince Jai worries about his mother's persistent illness, and is confused by her sudden interest in golden flowers. In response, the Empress reveals that the Emperor has been poisoning her tea and that she is planning on overthrowing him. Prince Jai agrees to lead the rebellion.

The Empress hires a mysterious woman to discover which substance she is being poisoned with, but Crown Prince Wan later captures the woman and takes her to the Emperor. The woman turns out to be Jiang Shi (Chen Jin), the Imperial Doctor's wife, who was the Emperor's first wife whom he imprisoned and believed dead. She carries the brand on her cheek from her time of incarceration. The Emperor decides to release her and to promote the Imperial Doctor to governor of Suzhou. As the Imperial Doctor's household rests at an inn on the way to Suzhou Jiang Chan tells Crown Prince Wan, who has come to meet her secretly, that the Empress has woven 10,000 scarves with golden flower sigils. Crown Prince Wan returns to the palace, followed by Jiang Chan, and confronts the Empress, and when she admits to planning a rebellion, he is anguished, and stabs himself with a knife, but survives.

In the inn the Imperial Doctor's family is betrayed and attacked at night by the Emperor's assassins. Jiang She, the only survivor, escapes and travels to the imperial palace, where she demands the Emperor for answers. When he remains silent, the Empress reveals that Jiang Shi was the Emperor's first wife, meaning that Jiang Chan and Crown Prince Wan are half-siblings. Jiang Chan screams upon hearing this, and flees from the palace, where she and her mother are promptly cut down by more assassins. Suddenly, the youngest son, Prince Yu, stabs and kills Crown Prince Wan with a sword, and summons a group of his own soldiers to kill the Emperor and seize the throne. He reveals that he knows about the Emperor's poisoning of the Empress, and of the Empress's affair with Crown Prince Wan, and of the coup. Since the rest of the family is morally unfit, the throne should be his. However, more of the assassins descend from the ceiling and easily kill Prince Yu's soldiers. The Empress leaves the room as the Emperor whips Prince Yu to death with his belt.

Meanwhile, the outer square of the palace is stormed by 10,000 soldiers wearing golden armor and golden flower sigils, with Prince Jai in the lead. They overpower the assassins and advance into the inner square of the palace, trampling the bed of golden flowers arranged for the ceremony. However, thousands of silver armored soldiers appear, being the reserve army of the Emperor, bearing shields or bows-and-arrows, and slaughter the golden soldiers to the last man. Prince Jai rises from the sea of bodies and is taken captive. Behind him, the courtyard is cleaned with mechanical efficiency by a legion of servants, with bodies being removed, floors being scrubbed and laid with carpets, and pots of yellow flowers being replaced, making it seem as if the entire rebellion never happened. At midnight, the Festival of Chrysanthemums begins as scheduled. At the table, the Emperor expresses disappointment with Prince Jai, saying that he was already planning to give Prince Jai the throne. He offers to pardon Prince Jai if he cooperates with his mother's poisoning. Prince Jai refuses and kills himself. Another cup of poisoned tea is offered to the Empress, but she slaps it away, and the liquid is shown to corrode the table's wood, and the golden flower image engraved in the wood. This is a reference to the Chinese proverb jinyuqiwai baixuqizhong (金玉其外败絮其中) which means All that is gold does not glitter.

Cast

Title

The Chinese title of the movie is taken from the last line of a Qi dynasty poem written by the rebel leader Huang Chao who was also the Emperor of the Qi Dynasty that was at war with the Later Tang Dynasty. Huang Chao had composed the poem "On the Chrysanthemum, after failing the Imperial Examination" (不第後賦菊/不第后赋菊) or simply "Chrysanthemum":

“ When autumn comes on Double Ninth Festival, / my flower [the chrysanthemum] will bloom and all others perish. / When the sky-reaching fragrance [of the chrysanthemum] permeates Chang'an, / the whole city will be clothed in golden armour.[4] ”
“ （Original Chinese text: 待到秋來九月八，我花開後百花殺。沖天香陣透長安，滿城盡帶黃金甲。） ”

Due to the film's high-profile while it was still in production, its title, which can be literally translated as "The Whole City is Clothed in Golden Armor", became a colorful metaphor for the spring 2006 sandstorms in Beijing and the term "golden armor" (黄金甲, huángjīnjiǎ) has since become a metaphor for sandstorms among the locals.[5]

Historical perspective

Buildings created for the film at Three Natural Bridges.

The screenplay is based on Thunderstorm, a renowned Chinese play written by Cao Yu in the 1930s.[6]

The English language version states that this movie is set in the "Tang dynasty" in the year 928. The Chinese version doesn't specify a time period. The film's published screenplay indicates it is set during Later Shu of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.[7] Neither the Tang dynasty (618–907) nor Later Shu (934–965) existed in the year 928, although another state named "Tang" — known as Later Tang in history — was, as well as other Chinese states Wu, Chu, Min, Southern Han, Jingnan and Wuyue, in addition to the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty (known as just Khitan in 928). However, Later Tang rulers were known as "Emperor" (皇帝) and never "King" (大王), and of all the states mentioned above, only Chu, Wuyue, Min and Jingnan rulers could be called "King" by their subjects in 928.

Release

Critical response

The US release garnered a generally positive reception (although tepid comparing to the director's past works).

Richard Corliss of Time magazine praised the film's lurid operatic aspect and states: "this is high, and high-wire, melodrama...where matters of love and death are played at a perfect fever pitch. And grand this Golden Flower is."[8] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times states: "In Curse of the Golden Flower Mr. Zhang achieves a kind of operatic delirium, opening the floodgates of image and melodrama until the line between tragedy and black comedy is all but erased."[9] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times describes the film as: "A period spectacle, steeped in awesome splendor and lethal palace intrigue, it climaxes in a stupendous battle scene and epic tragedy" and "director Zhang Yimou's lavish epic celebrates the gifts of actress Gong Li while weaving a timeless tale of intrigue, corruption and tragedy."[10] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon states: "the morbid grandiosity of Curse of the Golden Flower is its own distinctive accomplishment, another remarkable chapter in the career of Asia's most important living filmmaker."[11]

Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post writes: "Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower is a kind of feast, an over-the-top, all-stops-pulled-out lollapalooza that means to play kitschy and grand at once" and Hunter further states: "It's just a great old wild ride at the movies."[12]

On the other hand, Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing feels that the film was a poor reflection of director Zhang Yimou's acclaimed works of the past.[13] Bruce Westbrook of The Houston Chronicle though praising the film's spectacular visuals, states "Visuals alone can't make a story soar, and too often this one becomes bogged down by spectacle..."[14] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter states the film is "A disappointing misfire from a great director."[15] Gene Seymour of Newsweek states: "Curse of the Golden Flower is to the feudal costumed adventure what Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar is to the Western. Both bend their genres to the extremes of operatic grandeur with such force as to pull up just below the level of High Camp."[16] However Seymour states in the end that the film is overly melodramatic and ludicrous to absorb.[16]

The film received a score of 70 out of 100 from film critics according to the review aggregator Metacritic[17] and holds an average rating of 66% by film critics on the review ranking site Rotten Tomatoes.[18] Yahoo! Movies gave the film a B grade based on critical consensus.[19] It has grossed over $78 million worldwide.[20] It was also the third highest grossing non-English language film in 2006 after Apocalypto and Pan's Labyrinth.[21]

Soundtrack

Besides starring in the film, Jay Chou has also recorded two songs to accompany the film, one titled "Chrysanthemum Terrace" (Chinese: 菊花台; pinyin: Júhuā tái), released on his 2006 album Still Fantasy and one included in his Curse of the Golden Flower (EP). The EP includes Jay Chou's song "Golden Armor" (Chinese: 黄金甲; pinyin: Huángjīn jiǎ).

Awards and nominations

Curse of the Golden Flower won four awards out of 14 nominations from the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2007.

Category Nomination Result Ref
Best Film Curse of the Golden Flower Nominated [3]
Best Director Zhang Yimou Nominated
Best Actor Chow Yun-fat Nominated
Best Actress Gong Li Won
Best Supporting Actor Jay Chou Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Liu Ye Nominated
Best Cinematography Zhao Xiaoding Nominated
Art Direction Huo Tingxiao Won
Best Costume and Make Up Design Yee Chung-Man Won
Best Action Choreography Ching Siu-tung Nominated
Best Original Film Score Shigeru Umebayashi Nominated
Best Original Song "菊花台" (Chrysanthemum Flower Bed) by Jay Chou
from Still Fantasy 		Won
Best Sound Design Tao Jing, Roger Savage Nominated
Best Visual Effects Cheuk Wah Nominated

See also

References

  1. ↑ Zhang Yimou raises "Armor" at CCTV
  2. ↑ "'Curse,' 'The Banquet' picked as Oscar entries", Associated Press via Chinadotcom, October 3, 2006.
  3. 1 2 (Chinese) Hong Kong Film Awards official homepage 26th Hong Kong Film Awards winner/nomination list Retrieved 2011-06-15
  4. ↑ "Chrysanthemum - flower of honour". People's Daily, China, November 16, 2003.
  5. ↑ 国产大片 webcast at Chinese Pod.
  6. ↑ Berardinelli, James. "Curse of the Golden Flower: A Film Review by James Berardinelli". Reelviews Movie Reviews, 2006. Accessed 11 August 2009.
  7. ↑ The novel Curse of the Golden Flower
  8. ↑ Richard Corliss (2006-12-10). "Holiday Movies". Time. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  9. ↑ Jeannette Catsoulis (December 21, 2006). "Movie Review: Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  10. ↑ Kevin Thomas. "'Curse of the Golden Flower'". Los Angeles Times.
  11. ↑ Andrew O'Hehir. "Curse of the Golden Flower". Salon.com.
  12. ↑ Stephen Hunter (2006-12-22). "'Golden Flower' Bursting With Martial Arts Fun". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  13. ↑ Brunson, Matt. ""Foreign Affairs: Oscar hopefuls circle the globe". Creative Loafing Charlotte, 17 January 2007. Accessed 11 August 2009.
  14. ↑ Westbrook, Bruce (December 22, 2006). "Looks beautiful, but wilts without plot to sustain it". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  15. ↑ Kirk Honeycutt. "Curse of the Golden Flower". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 5, 2009.
  16. 1 2 Gene Seymour. "Curse of the Golden Flower". Newsweek.
  17. ↑ Metacritic
  18. ↑ Rottentomates
  19. ↑ "Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)". Yahoo! Movies.
  20. ↑ Boxoffice Mojo
  21. ↑ 2006 Worldwide Grosses

External links

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