Review of Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) by Leigh T — 11 Mar 2009

Curse of the heaving bosom more like. it was hard not to be distracted by the amount of boobage everywhere, quite unnecessary even if the point was to paint a picture of absolute decadence. probably not helped by the gawdy set design - hello colour overload. and not in the hue saturation of raise the red lantern either, it was just a horrible clash of pinks and greens and reds and yellows everywhere. the colours... they still burn.

Not a total turkey but not zhang yimou's finest hour either. gong li does what gong li does best - arrogant ice queen with emotional turmoil bubbling under the surface (quivering sneer and all), but I found that chow yun fat was a little bit hammy. or perhaps it was his character's callowness and lack of endearing qualities that I found off putting. I did however enjoy newcomer jay chou's presence - sort of a shy dignity.

Best moments were the ambush scenes of the rope sliding ninjas (ninjas on a flying fox like) but the epic battle in the palatial grounds just had an air of doomed reality to it for which I found no reason to feel hopeful.