Friday December 22, 2006 SGN.org |
 |
Volume 34 Issue 51 |
 |
|
Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
|
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||
|
Oedipus meets Hamlet in epic Curse of the Golden Flower |
||
.JPG) |
||
| Oedipus meets Hamlet in epic Curse of the Golden Flower | ||
|
by Lorelei Quenzer -
SGN A&E Writer Curse of the Golden Flower Directed by Zhang Yimou Starring Gong Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Jay Chou, Liu Ye, Junjie Qin Opens Today A précis of the opening plot of Curse of the Golden Flower reads a lot like a soap opera synopsis: Empress Phoenix (Gong Li, Memoirs of a Geisha, Raise the Red Lantern) is having an affair with her stepson, the Crown Prince (Liu Ye, The Promise); at the same time, she suspects that her husband, the Emperor Ping (Chow Yun-Fat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), is slowly poisoning her so she will lose her mind. Her bewildered youngest son is caught between warring parents, and her eldest son's return to the palace will inaugurate the start of the Chrysanthemum festival that symbolizes - irony alert - family unity. Curse has a lot to recommend itself. The opening sequence is sheer spectacle: at least one hundred handmaidens preparing themselves for a day of service in synchronized, graceful movements, decked out in silks to make costumers salivate. Gong is a force of nature as the beleaguered Empress, and Chow - barely recognizable in a salt-and-pepper beard - is both handsome and wicked. The color palette is a clash of Dynasties; lurid walls enameled in sickly yellows, pinks and greens compete with traditional reds and golds, signifying the war within the palace. There's more than one CGI-enhanced fighting scene, and the body count at the end of the film is impressive. But between the Shakespearean epic formula and the Oedipal mother issues, Curse of the Golden Flower is a disappointment. Director Zhang Yimou's message, as with his recent epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is pretty depressing. Hey, I know that right doesn't equal might, and that for those in power it's better to look good than to be good, darling. But - once again, irony alert - gorgeous cinematography, lavish décor and sumptuous costumes cannot save the incestuous twists and turns from turning tragedy to tragic-comic as the bodies accumulate. The spectacle may be worth the price of admission, but barely. |
||
 |
||
|
|
||
International Readers read the SGN in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 post your own information on Seattle Gay Blog |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006