Movie Review: Curse of the Golden Flower

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) 

Directed by Zhang Yimou 

Written by Zhang Yimou 

Starring Chow Yun Fat, Li Gong, Jay Chou 

Release Date December 21st, 2006 

Published January 3rd, 2007 

Director Yimou Zhang is an extraordinary talent whose work in the movies House of Flying Daggers and Hero is a wondrous combination of poetry, romance and awesome visual splendor. Zhang's attention to period detail and fluid, langorous camerawork create a visual tapestry unmatched by any of the greatest directors working today.

His talent for visual splendor is certainly on display in his latest film Curse of the Golden Flower. Unfortunately, in recreating China's Tang Dynasty circa 928 A.D, Zhang neglected his storytelling in favor of the most lustrous visuals he has yet brought to the screen. Curse of the Golden Flower is a feast for the eyes but in story terms, your average soap opera has less drippy, high falutin' melodrama.

Emporer Ping (Chow Yun Fat) has been plotting to eliminate his unfaithful wife, Empress Phoenix (Li Gong), for months; since he found out that she was having an affair with his oldest son Prince Cheng (Qin Jungjie). Prince Cheng who happens to be carrying on an affair with the daughter of the Emporer's medicine man who happens to be in charge of the Empress's daily medicine which is being spiked by the emporer with a poison that will slowly drive the empress insane.

Meanwhile the middle son of the clan Prince Jai has returned to the kingdom. He is to replace his weak willed older brother as the next in line for the throne but before he learns of the honor, he discovers his father is trying to kill his mother and decides to join the coup she has been planning for months. Oh, I mentioned Prince Jai's older brother, actually Prince Cheng is only his half brother, hence the affair Prince Cheng had with the empress wasn't really incest, though that incest ship hasn't sailed just yet, but I will leave that one for you to discover on your own.

Indeed, the plot of Curse of the Golden Flower does read like your average New York gossip column or bad episode of Melrose Place. And unfortunately the actors play the material to that same pitched melodramatic level. Gong Li, beautiful as ever as the empress, vamps like she graduated from the Joan Collins school of drama. The usually reliable Chow Yun Fat delivers a couple of badass moments but for the most part is stiffer than John Forsythe's corpse. (Is John Forsythe dead? Just checking)

Director Zhang Yimou adapted the screenplay from a popular Chinese stage play Yu Cao and retains some of the same broad theatrical beats in the direction of his actors who tend to belt each emotion to the back of the room as if in a large playhouse as opposed to a movie set with mics and sound techs. Still, Yimou's visual signatures are in place and that goes along way to making Curse of the Golden Flower passably entertaining.

All of the appeal of Curse of the Golden Flower comes from the visual wonders created by Zhang Yimou and his team including cinematographer Xiaoding Zhao and production designer Tingxiao Huo both of whom worked on Yimou's ostentatiously beautiful House of Flying Daggers. Because of the extraordinary work of these artists, Curse of the Golden Flower could be presented as a work of art, were it brought forth as a silent film without subtitles.

The eye popping production with it's massive ornate sets, and costumes that would put any Milan fashion show to shame, became the most expensive film in the history of China's movie industry, well over 100 million dollars American. The film is already profitable in the country and around the rest of the globe though it's American release has been something of a non-starter.

Curse of the Golden Flower is without a doubt a visual masterpiece, something that Hollywood studios likely feel won't appeal to American audiences. They might want to try selling the outlandish melodrama of the story. Why, I could see a marketing campaign that could turn ancient China into an old school wisteria lane, that sure seems to be what director Zhang Yimou was going for.

With it's opulant sets and breathtaking costumes,Curse of the Golden Flower is truly a feast for the eyes. The great visuals make the film that much more disappointing. Where his Hero and House of Flying Daggers were poetic, romantic and mostly silent, but also visually stunning, it is shocking to watch director Zhang Yimou deliver a film so tone deaf in its drama.

As a visual work of art, Curse of the Golden Flower is awesome eye candy. As a movie it's an irritating caricature of haughty night time soap opera melodrama.

Movie Review Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End

Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End (2007) 

Directed by Gore Verbinski 

Written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio 

Starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Naomie Harris, Chow Yun Fat, Bill Nighy

Release Date May 25th, 2007 

Published May 24th, 2007 

The first Pirates of the Caribbean looked at first blush like some Disney, corporate synergy deal. After all, we are talking about a real life theme park ride made into a movie. Thankfully, however, thanks to the brilliant, Oscar nominated performance of Johnny Depp and the lighthearted direction of Gore Verbinski, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl was a breath of fresh air in a sea of stale blockbusters.

The second Pirates movie, Dead Man's Chest, sadly suffered from sequelitis. Bloated to over 2 and a half hours, the film spun it\'s wheels far too often before its twist ending arrived to turn things around.

Now comes Pirates 3, At World's End which gives the series the kind of coda it deserves. Yes, it is nearly as bloated as the second film, but it is also has equal to, or even more thrills than the original and even more plot twists.

When last we saw Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) he was staring down the gullet of the Kraken, looking death in the eye and cackling like a mad man. Soon after his death his 'friends' Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), Will (Orlando Bloom) and the remaining crew of the Black Pearl realize they need Jack Sparrow back if they are going to fight the new alliance of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the East India Trading Co. headed up by Lord Beckett.

With the aid of the sorceress Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), who raises Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) from the dead for extra help, they must sail to the world's end, to Davy Jones' locker to retrieve Jack. Once they have him they must convene the nine pirate lords and decide whether to run or to fight as one for the pirate way.

There are a dozen other minor subplots in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World\ 's End, not counting the number of twists and turns and shifting character allegiances that boggle the mind. If you have recently seen the second Pirates sequel, Dead Man\'s Chest, you might want to bring some cliff\'s notes on that film so you can follow some of the twists of At World\'s End.

On one hand, the script by Terry Rossio and  Ted Elliott, the writers of all three Pirates movies, has a great deal of depth and complexity. On the other hand the long bits of expository dialogue that attempt to explain the shifting sands of this plot can tend to bog down the movie, as they did to almost deathly effect in Dead Man's Chest.

Thankfully, Director Gore Verbinski rescues At World\'s End from ponderousness by delivering a quicker, funnier film with a strong visual sense and better, more spectacular special effects than anything in either of the first two films.

The centerpiece of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a spectacular final battle scene set inside a swirling watery vortex. This scene features not merely a massive battle but also the tying of a few major plot strands, a couple of character twists and more than one major... well I\'ll leave you to see it for yourself. All spectacular stuff.

Even with the improved effects, more sure handed direction and all of those plot complications, Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow is once again the major draw of Pirates of the Caribbean. If you, like me, felt his Captain Jack was a little hemmed in by the plot in Dead Man's Chest, there is no such worry in At World's End. Captain Jack is now even crazier and more paranoid, even schizophrenic at times and it all works to grand comic effect.

Wait till you see Captain Jack's return to the screen in ATW. What a hoot. Trapped in purgatory aboard the Black Pearl in some desert oasis, Captain Jack goes all multiple personality and starts imagining hundreds of himself. Imagine a ship's crew worthy of Jack Sparrow's, full on Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman style bizarre. Absolutely wonderful moment.

And I haven\'t even mentioned the crabs.

Not all is well in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I am sad to report, for you Chow Yun Fat fans, the great master of Asian rock'em sock'em cinema is underutilized in what really amounts to a cameo appearance, not what were promised from trailers and commercials which seemed to give him equal billing with the other supporting characters.

The only really great moments for Chow come in his introductory scene in a steam filled underground lair in Singapore. Facing off with Elizabeth and Captain Barbossa, with Will Turner trapped in a Han Solo moment, water tortured in a barrel, this is Pirates Return of the Jedi moment and Chow Yun Fat makes for an exceptional Jabba the Hut.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is a terrific coda for a series that began life as an ugly exercise in corporate synergy and morphed into a truly rollicking adventure series worthy of our exultation's, our huzzahs. Yo ho ho, indeed, this final Pirates film, until someone can convince Disney to spend the 200+ million necessary for another sequel, is a wonderful adventure, a high spirited comedy and most importantly, a grand stage for the great Johnny Depp.

As his Captain Jack slips into icon status, here\ 's hoping Mr. Depp is once again considered by the good people at Oscar. His At World\'s End performance is the most entertaining thing you\'ve seen on screen thus far in 2007 and likely will see all year.

Movie Review: Bulletproof Monk

Bulletproof Monk (2003) 

Directed by Paul Hunter 

Written by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris 

Starring Chow Yun Fat, Seann William Scott, Jamie King, Karel Roden 

Release Date April 16th, 2003 

Published April 15th, 2003 

The question has been asked since Chow Yun Fat made his American leading man debut in Replacement Killers: Can the Orient's top gunslinging action star translate his popularity to American audiences? With the $100 million dollar success of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, you might think the question has been answered. But in reality it hasn't. Crouching Tiger was a departure for Chow Yun Fat, a familiar Asian face that made Crouching Tiger's mystical nature more palatable to American audiences who normally shun movies with subtitles. The real test for Chow Yun Fat's star power comes with his return to action leading man in Bulletproof Monk.

In Monk, Chow Yun Fat is the nameless protector of ancient scroll that if read aloud would give ultimate power to the reader to remake the world for good or evil. In 1943 our nameless hero gave up his name to become the protector of the scroll. He is immediately attacked by Nazi soldiers whose leader, Strucker (Karl Roden), is familiar with the scrolls. After fighting off the Nazis and making a daring jump off a tall mountain, it's off on a 60-year journey to protect humanity.

There is, of course, a catch to being the protector of the scroll. After 60 years you must turn the scroll over to a new protector. So now in New York 60 years later, the man with no name must seek out the scroll’s new protector while dodging the Nazis who have been tracking him the whole time. While running through the New York subway system attempting to evade Nazi captors, our hero meets a young pickpocket named Kar (Sean William Scott) who helps him save a little girl who has fallen on the subway tracks. 

Kar happened to be running from the police at the time. The two escape into the subway tunnels before either one can be captured. Our hero is impressed with Kar's selflessness in helping him, while Kar simply finds our hero to be strange and takes the opportunity to lift what he thinks is his wallet before leaving him in the tunnel.

Of course our hero is no dummy, he tracks Kar to a subway tunnel where Kar has accidentally wandered into the lair of a criminal gang lead by a man called Mr. Funktastic. No I didn't make that up though I wish I had. A fight ensues as our hero simply watches as Kar fights the gang including a girl named Jade (Jaime King) who is oddly attracted to him. Kar holds his own and escapes when Jade convinces the gang to let him go. What Kar doesn't yet know is that the fight holds special significance to our nameless hero who is convinced it's part of a prophecy and that Kar may be his replacement.

This sets up the film’s formula action, which is somewhat predictable. However what isn't predictable is the effective chemistry of Chow and Scott and the goofy energy that both bring to their cheesy dialogue. Thankfully, dialogue is kept to a minimum. Bulletproof Monk director Paul Hunter shows a strong control over what he's doing in his first feature, keeping the action pace up and playing to the film’s strength.

The action isn't anything you haven't seen before, there is plenty of Matrix style effects. What makes the action in Bulletproof Monk work is the energy and liveliness the stars bring to it. As they go through the obligatory teacher-student training session, both stars use their charisma and energy to make a very typical scene fun.

Chow Yun Fat has been accused of sleepwalking through his first few American films and he's not exactly ebullient here. Still, there is a little glint in his eye and a sly smile that he employs to great effect. He looks like he's having a lot of fun, especially in scene where he spars with Scott while eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. You can see he's very pleased with himself throughout the scene and it's really very funny.

The film has its troubles, such as the lame villains who are something from an 80's action movie. Former model Jaime King needs a little more work, as it is she seems to have a future in roles like this but not much more. The real disappointment comes from the character Mr. Funktastic, who is greatly underused. Why introduce a character with such a memorable moniker and then not use him?

I was really surprised how much I laughed during this film and very surprised that most of the laughs were intentional. By that I mean that's what the film was going for. So many modern action films are out of touch with the ridiculousness of their plots, but Bulletproof Monk knows it's goofy and plays to it.