Curse of the Golden Flower
Feb. 6th, 2007 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaiserkuchenViewed in the First Class with Ma, as she would rather spend 1000 baht on this instead of watching King Naresuan with me D: WHY COULD'NT SHE HAVE WAITED... Otherwise, the perks of First Class are great though, hurrah for cushy reclinable chairs with blankets!
So I had vaguely skimmed over some reviews of this in the flist, mostly not so positive re:plot and all if I can recall correctly? Would be interesting to reread those posts again with my added knowledge and all, but ehh am too lazy to search a month or more worth of entries :P
My biggest impression of the movie was the sheer visual BEAUTY of the setting-- the backgrounds(I WANT TO LIVE IN THAT PALACE), the elaborate costumes(!!! so gorgeous), and the seemingly unending amount of extras bustling about. The shots of all the servants preparing the little things that keep the Imperial Palace up and running were great, I love these kinds of movies about royal courts that also show how grandiose it all was...
I still remain more than vaguely(haah) confused about the plot though, so many double and triple twists and DEATH!!! and the ending was kind of '...uh whut' buuut I can ignore that in favor of breathtaking visual pretty, yes.
And because I am overcome by sudden laziness, further thoughts in bullet points:
_Gong Li was a beautiful empress, though as in Memoirs of a Geisha she looks her absolute stunning best when wearing her hair down. SO HOT. I was kind of in love with her make-up in the movie-- especially that reddish-gold lipstick...
_Chow Yun Fat as the Emperor! Ahhh I was always torn between going arrrgh at his magnificent bastardliness and finding that kind of interesting. He had the best sneer-pout going on though, and looked craaaazy with his hair also down in the build-down from the attempted coup beating on his youngest son with belt o' doom. LOVED his armour, though!
_The chick who was doing the Crown Prince was so pretty, like a porcelain doll. Lol about the later reveal of her real relationship between the two though ahaha...
_The Crown Prince was such a weepy sob, blaaargh. So was he the only son from the first wife?
_JAY CHOU with facial hair ahahahaha! I didn't really think he did that bad of a job acting, though that also might be due to the fact that I was either sniggering to myself about his goatee or squeeing about his armor or that scene where he was leading the attempted coup and swinging his halberd around. HOT WEAPON WIELDING= STRAIGHT TO MY HEART
_re: the coup ...poor Chrysantheum army soldiers! Also, where the hell did the sudden mass of Imperial soldiers come from in the end? How huge IS the Imperial Palace? And EVERYBODY had a secret!1 army it seems XDD The Emperors Ninja-types were great, though! And the youngest son was obviously grossly underprepared with his eight dudes. Tchaaa. He also made fun crazyfaces and that bit in the end was so cliche MOMMY DADDY PAAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE D: D: D:
_THE CLEANUP OF THE CORPSE-STREWN ARENA(?) BY THE ARMY OF SERVANTS SHOT omg that was so awesome
_soooo the last medicine in the end scene was acid? And is the Empress dead now or what? Man the Emperor has some hard times ahead, rebuilding his court and all, not to mention the fact that ALL his heirs are DEAD. Oopsa!
And in that note, also bought some more Asian movies to watch-- now am the proud owner of 'The Banquet'(Ma says it's similar to this one?), 'All about Lily Chou-Chou'(WHEN I WANT TO DEPRESS MYSELF :(( ) and the INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY yessss :D :D
Must see about buying 'Faen Chan', 'Nana', 'Ping Pong' and 'In the Mood for Love' etc etc before I leave!
CAN'T FIND THE NODAME DORAMA THO WHHHHHY ARE THERE ONLY KOREAN DRAMAS HERE? DO NOT WANT D:
So I had vaguely skimmed over some reviews of this in the flist, mostly not so positive re:plot and all if I can recall correctly? Would be interesting to reread those posts again with my added knowledge and all, but ehh am too lazy to search a month or more worth of entries :P
My biggest impression of the movie was the sheer visual BEAUTY of the setting-- the backgrounds(I WANT TO LIVE IN THAT PALACE), the elaborate costumes(!!! so gorgeous), and the seemingly unending amount of extras bustling about. The shots of all the servants preparing the little things that keep the Imperial Palace up and running were great, I love these kinds of movies about royal courts that also show how grandiose it all was...
I still remain more than vaguely(haah) confused about the plot though, so many double and triple twists and DEATH!!! and the ending was kind of '...uh whut' buuut I can ignore that in favor of breathtaking visual pretty, yes.
And because I am overcome by sudden laziness, further thoughts in bullet points:
_Gong Li was a beautiful empress, though as in Memoirs of a Geisha she looks her absolute stunning best when wearing her hair down. SO HOT. I was kind of in love with her make-up in the movie-- especially that reddish-gold lipstick...
_Chow Yun Fat as the Emperor! Ahhh I was always torn between going arrrgh at his magnificent bastardliness and finding that kind of interesting. He had the best sneer-pout going on though, and looked craaaazy with his hair also down in the build-down from the attempted coup beating on his youngest son with belt o' doom. LOVED his armour, though!
_The chick who was doing the Crown Prince was so pretty, like a porcelain doll. Lol about the later reveal of her real relationship between the two though ahaha...
_The Crown Prince was such a weepy sob, blaaargh. So was he the only son from the first wife?
_JAY CHOU with facial hair ahahahaha! I didn't really think he did that bad of a job acting, though that also might be due to the fact that I was either sniggering to myself about his goatee or squeeing about his armor or that scene where he was leading the attempted coup and swinging his halberd around. HOT WEAPON WIELDING= STRAIGHT TO MY HEART
_re: the coup ...poor Chrysantheum army soldiers! Also, where the hell did the sudden mass of Imperial soldiers come from in the end? How huge IS the Imperial Palace? And EVERYBODY had a secret!1 army it seems XDD The Emperors Ninja-types were great, though! And the youngest son was obviously grossly underprepared with his eight dudes. Tchaaa. He also made fun crazyfaces and that bit in the end was so cliche MOMMY DADDY PAAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE D: D: D:
_THE CLEANUP OF THE CORPSE-STREWN ARENA(?) BY THE ARMY OF SERVANTS SHOT omg that was so awesome
_soooo the last medicine in the end scene was acid? And is the Empress dead now or what? Man the Emperor has some hard times ahead, rebuilding his court and all, not to mention the fact that ALL his heirs are DEAD. Oopsa!
And in that note, also bought some more Asian movies to watch-- now am the proud owner of 'The Banquet'(Ma says it's similar to this one?), 'All about Lily Chou-Chou'(WHEN I WANT TO DEPRESS MYSELF :(( ) and the INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY yessss :D :D
Must see about buying 'Faen Chan', 'Nana', 'Ping Pong' and 'In the Mood for Love' etc etc before I leave!
CAN'T FIND THE NODAME DORAMA THO WHHHHHY ARE THERE ONLY KOREAN DRAMAS HERE? DO NOT WANT D:
