Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray Movie Review

Zhang Yimou's tragic tale of a coup in ancient China is visually enthralling, emotionally draining and mostly inaccessible.

Reviewed by Greg Maltz September 4, 2007

Sparks sizzle as sword strikes sword. Ornate fabrics explode from the screen in shimmering bursts. Incestuous relationships mark dysfunctional royalty in China's Forbidden City. All these components of Curse of the Golden Flower are familiar territory for Zhang Yimou. The film's director and co- writer is known for bringing weightless warriors and tortured souls into tragedies where love cannot conquer all. Curse of the Golden Flower is perhaps his most ambitious film in this genre. It is certainly his most visually compelling, with vibrant colors, glittering gold and fascinating textures filling almost every scene. The 1080p resolution allows the viewer to mine every detail of the ornate costumes and sets.

The Curse of the Golden Flower explodes from the screen with colorful sets, lavish costumes and tormented characters.

The story unfolds slowly in the beautiful palace, where the empress (Gong Li) has a sudden illness and appears obsessed with her needlepoint work, designing golden flowers. As the reasons behind her illness and her needlework become clearer, the complex rifts between members of the royal family move toward a bloody and tragic ending. The final showdown seems unavoidable and, in spite of the inflated scope of the film, is more psychological than military. Yimou uses all the tools at his disposal, culminating in CGI armies and effects. Yet these effects are not the film's greatest power or visual feat. The sets and costumes are.

In Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li, Curse of the Golden Flower features two of Asia's biggest stars. While the acting is excellent, the story and direction make the characters seem distant and irrational. In fact, the entire atmosphere in the palace is bizarre. The propaganda-like hourly announcements of the servants is simulataneously funny and chilling--a constant reminder that the emperor rules with impunity. By the time the motivations for the characters' behavior are made clear, most of them are already impossible to admire or appreciate. The only character the viewer can easily relate to is the middle son. His loyalties are the purist, his leadership abilities are admirable and his fighting skills are far beyond those of his brothers.

Curse of the Golden Flower is a serious film, an ambitious project. Unfortunately, like the characters it portrays, the film is destined to tragic failure. But despite its challenges, Yimou pursued it and it's easy to see why. The film is certainly worth viewing by anyone interested in watching their HDTV's capacity for color and microdetail.

Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony Pictures does justice to the stunning visuals using the MPEG-4 codec. Watch for tremendous details on armor, fabrics and faces. The resolution reveals the most subtle of facial expressions in extraordinary detail, communicating the full emotion and motives of the actors' words to non- Chinese speaking viewers. Subtitles are sufficient but they by no means communicate the full impact of the dialogue. Watch how facial expressions change when information is shared for faster access to the characters' motives and the subplots.

One feature of 1080p resolution: it fully reveals cheesy CGI effects and unfortunately, Curse of the Golden Flower has its share. All the spears and arrows used in the fight scenes are computer- generated, and it is not a particularly realistic look. Some views of the CGI armies also appear fake and two dimensional, although the detail is there. Depth is generally lacking in this blu-ray, and it may be a combination of cinematography and use of computer animation in some scenes. The sets are generally small, so the shallow videostage focuses more on color richness than on depth.

Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While 20-bit, 96-kHz is more my ideal, the 16-bit, 48-kHz PCM is sufficient for this blu-ray. Voices are rendered with a clear and strong presentation. Tonal cues and vocal inflections, like facial expressions, are strong cues of the characters' motivations and mental state. I actually heard many nuances of Chinese I had not heard before. The soundtrack was of CD quality. Aside from the score and voices, other sounds in the film were not mic'ed convincingly, and had a hard-edge.

It works for me because the quality of the soundtrack really was not a close match to the quality visuals. In some films from Asia, the scores make use of traditional instruments such as the erhu. One of the disturbing trends in films like Curse of the Golden Flower is to abandon Chinese music. Some influence and modern Chinese music remains, but much of the soundtrack was a recording of a synthesizer. To be fair, the film includes use of traditional drums, but they had almost no deep bass impact. The audio was better than DVD quality, but not reference quality.

Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Maybe there is less coverage of movies and moviemakers in China. The Curse of the Golden Flower is light on bonus material. Only two special features are included: the Los Angeles premiere of the film and a more rewarding supplement entitled, "Secrets Within: Making of a Featurette".

Curse of the Golden Flower Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Yimou has a distinctive style rooted in folk traditions of China. But he is increasingly influenced by western films, especially those involving epic scope and CGI battles. It seems he tries to work in these devices just for the sake of it. The story becomes an excuse for the visuals instead of the other way 'round.

With the emotional and psychological plotline, a political or military component to the film becomes a bit much. By including it, Yimou lost some focus on the underlying story and characters. The result is depressing--all the more so because it seems unavoidable. The characters turn into emotional black holes that do not reward the viewers' interest. But that's essentially the way the story is written. The way the plot evolves, the characters are by definition not accessible to viewers with decent values.

Curse of the Golden Flower had elements of Shakesperian tragedy, but the only deep message was that the characters knew they were doomed and pursued their plans regardless. And that, ironically, is the story of the film, too. Yimou pursued the film regardless, as a vehicle for his visual art. The weightless warriors and splashes of color show Yimou's gift. If only the story was worthy.