10th Century , during China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest . On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou). His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress (Gong Li),this seems disingenuous . The control of emperor over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself . For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye),her stepson, have had an illicit liaison and unspeakable secrets are hidden within the Forbidden City. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man),the Imperial Doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows worried over the Empress's health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. 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, the emperor relocates the medic's family from the Palace to a remote area . While they are en route, mysterious assassins attack them. Chan and her mother, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin) are forced back to the palace. At the night, thousands of soldiers are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace in a spectacular final battle .

This luxurious epic film was marvelously filmed with impressive production design , colorful cinematography and breathtaking scenes . The picture is full of tumultuous sequences with dark surprises , thrills , fierce combats and groundbreaking battles . Amid the glamour and grandeur of the scenarios is developed a familiar intrigue in Shakespeare's King Lear style , including betrayal , incest , crime and exploring the dark side of Chinese empire . Impressive and rousing fights with thousands of golden armored warriors reenacted by lots of extras . Overwhelming attack on the fortress where is relocated the doctor's family , being subsequently copied in ¨Kung Fu Panda¨ . Wonderfully photographed especially when against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace. The motion picture was glamorously directed by Yimou Zhang who often works with the actress Li Gong and as well as most of his films , it begins with the title displayed in Chinese calligraphy style. Zhang forms part of China's Fifth Generation of filmmakers, who began making films after the Cultural Revolution , others from this group include Chen Kaige and Jinzhan Zhang . He is an expert on Chinese epics such as ¨Shanghai Triad¨ , ¨Hero¨ ,¨House of Flying Daggers¨ , ¨The flowers of war¨ and of course the Oscarized and successful ¨Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon¨ . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching .

Me and my girlfriend watched this in Guangzhou, China. It isn't exactly a feel-good movie..

It's hard to describe what this film does, without spoiling the movie. And that structure is it's strength. Suffice to say, this is a very strongly woven movie, a movie where direction and production are the stars.

And that is also "Curse of the golden flower"'s weakness. This is, after all, a movie. Moviegoers are used to seeing the full spectrum of a movie; varied scenery and ambiance, multiple stories, realistic characters, a realistic society portrait, and so on. Certainly, this movie has strong characters, but like the imperial court setting, they are puppets. They never change their directions, they are forced to play the drama. Most of the action happens on the same 3-4 scenes, with the same characters. Like an opera; stereotypic, but intensely dramatic and glorious.

That said, this movie had an effect on me, and as mentioned, it is very well crafted. Without a doubt, it shows Yimou Zhang's skills in his profession, and I do recommend it. But don't expect a "movie" in the classical sense, expect Greek tragedy or opera-style drama.

While this is far from my favorite Chinese movie, it is one I strongly recommend you see simply because of its spectacular battle sequences in the last third of the film. While it's obvious in places that lots of CG technology was used, it still is amazing seeing battle sequences that come close to those from the Lord of the Rings films in grandeur and scope.

The plot itself reminds me a bit of A LION IN WINTER and I, CLAUDIUS since it follows the very dysfunctional machinations of the emperor and his family. After a while, it becomes a bit difficult figuring who's scheming against who and keeping track of all the amoral actions of the cast that make them seem much like a more dysfunctional and power-made group than the famed Borgias of Italy! All this is done in amazing style and grace, though the first third of the film might seem a bit too slow for many. I'll concede this is a bit true, but urge the viewer to stick with it--the film inexorably draws to an amazing conclusion in which 1000 extras were employed in a huge battle in which it appears that about 50000 troops were fighting to a very, very bloody death. And please note that I did say "bloody". This film earned an R rating even though there is no nudity and the language is rather tame--all because buckets and buckets of fake blood are used and the deaths are at times very brutal.

In closing, there are a couple things to look for. First, the ninja-like assassins are really high on the cool factor. They are of course over-the-top as is some of the action, but it is far more believable and uses far less of the high-flying gadgetry of films such as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. Also, watch the scene were the emperor and his #2 son have a sword fight near the beginning of the film--wow is THAT exciting!