Curse of the Golden Flower

Went to see 'Curse of the Golden Flower' last night and my eyes are still recovering from the sheer scale and colour of the film. It was gorgeous beyond measure, sumptuous with added sumpt (as described in another blog), impossibly beautiful, etc etc... The size of the production was incredible, with more people on screen last night than I've probably seen in the last three months of travelling round London. The logistics of housing, clothing and feeding that many people must have equated to the trenches in the First World War. You can get an idea of the colour and size of the production on its website and the trailers.

The plot was quite thin and the pace very slow. Perhaps 'slow' should equate to 'stately' but I just wished they'd hurry up in a number of places. Basically, the Emperor returns from a war and everyone wants the throne. Throw in some poison to turn the Empress mad because she's having an affair with the Crown Prince (from the Emperor's first marriage) and the Emperor's first wife turning up who was supposed to have died 20 years ago and you have the usual tragedy mix. There are little twists and turns, but that's basically it. The film rests on how the story is told.

I love the way that the women are martial arts and weapons experts without any overt training and jump around unhampered by their flowing robes, that the Emperor is still a supreme swordsman despite getting no physical exercise and being carried everywhere, that no matter how many people are killed there are always more servants and army fodder.

One of my favourite extended scenes was when the Emperor's assassins go to kill the Emperor's doctor, his family and entire household in an inn in a mountain gorge. Rather than just battering down the front door, they fly down ropes from the cliff-tops (how they got up there must have exhausted the poor darlings) and then when they escape on horse-back the assassins follow by flying through the gorges again on ropes that come from nowhere and attack them. It's an incredibly spectacular scene and just a little bit silly. I loved it. I also loved the way the black-clad assassins kept popping up all over the place when least expected (no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition).

The massive battle scene was just too big to take on board, mind- numbing in size and scale, just having that many men all running in the same direction at one time must have been a health and safety nightmare. And where did the fields of potted yellow chrysanthemum's come from? And all that silk and golden thread? And what's happened to it all now? It's just unbelievably BIG.

The fact that I'm blogging at such length means it impacted on me in some way. I'm pleased I've seen it on the big screen - it wouldn't have the same impact seen on my telly from a DVD. Go and see it while it's on the big screen, sit back and relax into it, free your imagination and enjoy!