The Curse of the Golden Flower

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

This movie, is the box office in China, with the huge setting on the Imperial Palace, with thousand actor as soldier, with the great detail of armour, interior, jewelery, this movie is excellence.The fighting scene is unforgetable too,maybe this time Chinese genre action movies with the Emperor age setting, used the same effect (Fearless, Hero,Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,The Promise etc).

96 million yuans (US$12.3 millions), that was how much the Chinese paid in the past weekend to see Zhang Yimou's latest mega-budget historical epic. This unbelievably high number more than doubles the old record (US$6.04 millions), set by Hero, Zhang's first mega budget historical drama, released four years ago. Zhang Weiping, president of Beijing New Picture Film Co., said many people went to see the movie because of good words of mouth. He is predicting another good performance during the second weekend because many theaters in China will run overnight screenings at the Christmas Eve. The movie is already shown on most screens in the country and number of such screens is on the rise. But it is still hard to tell weather the revenue from the domestic box-office will cover the US$45 millions spent on making it. Starting next week, the film will be released in the rest of Asia and North America.

On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns with Prince Jai (Jay Chou), the eldest-born son of the emperor, makes a return to the palace near the eve of the Chong Yang Festival after having spent three years on frontlines.His coming is to celebrate the holiday with his family.

For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor's daughter.For decades, the emperor is forcing his wife to drink one dose of medicine each hour,Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows worried over the his mom health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums.Someone tell the Empress, that she was drink a poison, that make her growing lunatic.

The Emperor harbors equally clandestine plans; the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) is the only one privy to his machinations. When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor's family from the Palace to a remote area.

While they are running into the palace, mysterious assassins like ninja attack them. Chan and her mother, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin) are forced back to the palace. Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of death surprises.

The night before Chong Yang Festival, all the secret of the golden flower, has uncovered, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace.But the black ninja which is the special secret army of the emperor, against them. the martial scene was so cool, flying man, is not only fly, they had a hooked sword, that make them possible to fly, little make sense for me. It's the Emperor family intrique, with a bloody ended.
Against a moonlight night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace.

The set, I just have to say something about the set. The palaces you will see in the movie, may look so unreal, but are actually part of a near full-scale replica of Beijing’s The Forbidden City, built in Hengdian World Studios. The palace interior was built inside Beijing Film Studios. The imperial post was built in the bottom of a place called “Heavenly Pit” near Chongqing city. Contrary to what he did for Hero, designer Huo Tingxiao made the set lavishly suffocating.