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02/03/07
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Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
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Reviews Counted:33
Fresh:19
Rotten:14
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Melodrama, swordplay, and CG armies -- fans of martial arts epic will get what they bargain for, though the baroque art direction can be both mesmerizing and exhaustively excessive.
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Dec 21, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $6,466,942
Synopsis: In 2004, Zhang Yimou caused a sensation with his astonishing HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, and his CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER is yet another dazzling, visually stunning film. Calling again upon the... [More]
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Reviews for Curse of the Golden Flower
Top CriticClick to read the article
02/03/07
Top CriticTo put a point to it, the lavish period costumes, operatic mise-en-scène and ceremonial grandeur of Curse of the Golden Flower clashes fatally with the nuanced nastiness of modern marital discord.
01/17/07
Top CriticFor all the swordplay and martial-arts fisticuffs, Curse is its most delirious as a lavish argument for the soap opera's roots in Greek tragedy.
01/12/07
Top CriticThis spectacularly decorated movie offers the enjoyment of watching Zhang chronicle the lives of one very nutty family. It also allows Zhang to load every inch of the screen with images so full that you half expect them to collapse under their own weight.
01/12/07
Top CriticCurse is straightforward and solemn, lacking not for spectacle but for humor and a humanizing touch.
01/12/07
Top CriticMake no mistake, all is epic, violent, bloody madness once the director hits his stride, and fans of Zhang's work will not want to miss Curse of the Golden Flower. But brush strokes are amiss here.
01/12/07
Top CriticIf looks were all it took to thrill, this opulent, near-operatic historical pageant would rank with Zhang Yimou's last two epics.
01/12/07
Top CriticBasically, the movie is soap opera done on a grand opera scale -- more Dynasty than Later Tang Dynasty. The immensity of Zhang's vision is eyepopping. Imagine several football fields worth of shimmering golden chrysanthemums.
01/11/07
Top CriticIt's operatic in its feeling and there’s a lot going on here. And there’s murders and betrayals, and affairs that are illicit, and women on horse-back and great fight scenes.
01/08/07
Top CriticCurse of the Golden Flower is a watchable soap opera, but its marching-band martial-arts scenes are little more than weakly staged retreads of the ones in Zhang's Hero.
01/03/07
Top Critic...A spectacle for the eyes and for the soul.
12/29/06
Top CriticDirector Zhang Yimou is aiming for glorious visual, kinetic and emotional overload, and he delivers the goods.
12/28/06
Top CriticThe morbid grandiosity of Curse of the Golden Flower is its own distinctive accomplishment, another remarkable chapter in the career of Asia's most important living filmmaker.
12/28/06
Top CriticThe year's most operatic and visually lavish film.
12/22/06
Top CriticIt's a minor wonder that Zhang and his crew manage to make the film as stirring as it is, given the high body count and the general disregard for tender sensibilities.
12/22/06
Top CriticIts overabundance is more blessing than curse, however, provided you can suspend disbelief over a campy plot and focus on one lush, eye-popping scene after another.
12/22/06
Top CriticThe ever-luminous Gong Li and the wickedly nonchalant Chow Yun-Fat are wonderful together.
12/22/06
Top CriticA dramatic crisis erupts in bloodbaths that are filled with flash but little meaning. As armies clash, the cast also yields to histronic extremes.
12/22/06
Top CriticInstead of transporting awe, the viewer groans under the weight of Zhang's self-conscious cinematic one-upmanship.
12/22/06
Top CriticLatest News for Curse of the Golden Flower
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January 11, 2007:
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