The Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)

[满城尽带黄金甲]

Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou

Synopsis:
The cruel Emperor has his wife slowly poisoned, but the Queen learns of this and with her son devises a plot against him.

Impressions:
From the very start of the film, you see that this is a big, lavish production. If the though of an epic medieval Chinese soap opera sounds like something you want to get in on, this is the movie for you. Chow Yun-fat is quite good as the flint-hearted Emperor (technically not an emperor, but we'll just use the localization's translation to save on quibbling and pedantry) and Li Gong is superlative as the ailing Empress. The plot is quite the tangled web but not overly convoluted, so I enjoyed it a lot. There's good fight choreography and let me reiterate once again the grand scale used in this film. You know, I wouldn't doubt it if you told me they had all live extras and no CG crowd filling. If you like palace drama, this is the film for you.

Rating:
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