滿城盡帶黃金甲 Curse of the Golden Flower (PG)

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

《沖天香陣透長安，滿城盡帶黃金甲》, a true event during the Tang Dynasty but that's not the case for this movie...only the title was adapted...Think domestic dispute of a disfunctional family on an epic scale (bad husband, desperate housewife, incest kids, mama's boy, rebelious teenager, angry 1st wife etc) + lots of Chrysanthemum!

Director 張藝謀 once again gathered lots of $$$ to bring us an extremely lavish production. The colourful palace that will leave you colourblind, shiny armours, fine details in everything but the main plot...but these pays off when you witness the fights & battle scenes; thanks to action director 程小東. Just as 張藝謀 usual style, he'll add in things uniquely China (eg. the imperial medical hall...& all them chinese tities...-_-") to capture black & white foreign audiences with yellow fever.

Unlike 英雄 (Hero) & 十面埋伏 (House of Flying Daggers), 滿城盡帶黃金甲's plot makes more sense & believable but still flawed. It's like 張藝謀 planned out all the eye candy scenes then slowly write in the plot to link'em up. No doubt about 周潤發, he IS the Emperor & 鞏俐 IS the Queen. But the favor didn't go with the rest of the cast..ESPECIALLY "Jay臭"!!! He's still a very~ very~ very~ bad actor! Can't comprehen why the director cast him for this rather major role? Haven't he heard of the inheritance theory? 周潤發 + 鞏俐 ≠ Jay....*unless he was dropped...face down...as a baby~*...

Director: 張藝謀
Cast: 周潤發, 鞏俐, 周杰倫, 劉燁, 陳瑾, 李曼

1 star for Art Direction, 1 for the set, 1 for 周潤發, 1 for them "ultra-squeeshed" boobies...& minus 1 for Jay the wooden boy...