Curse of the Golden Flower

Once again, the Chinese prove they can make depressing movies with the best of them. Created by the director of Hero, an equally depressing movie starring Jet Li kicking major ass, this movie takes you on a wild ride of betrayal (oo), scandal (ah), and more twists and turns than a bull ride (not sure where that one came from).

The movie takes place in Imperial China and begins with the Emperor returning after three years on the frontier. For the past ten days, the Imperial Doctor has been secretly poisoning the Empress on orders of the Emperor (men!). There are three princes - the eldest from the Emperor's first wife who died and the other two from the current Empress. It's soon revealed that the Empress has been having an affair with the eldest prince while the Emperor has been away. Unfortunately for her, the eldest prince has recently begun spreading his manliness with the Doctor's daughter and decides to end the affair. Suspicious that she is being poisoned, the Empress orders the Doctor's wife to spy on him, and thus she learns the truth.

This is only the tip of the iceberg so to avoid ruining the remaining delicious surprises, I'll stop there and just say that everyone dies in the end and the movie ends with no real resolution. At least with Hero, I felt like there was a conclusion, i.e. Jet Li kills everyone and then gets killed. Even though the ending left much to be desired, the visuals in this movie were stunning. The costumes and stage sets were so beautiful that it's worth watching just from an artistic point of view.

Rating: 3.5/5