Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Movie · 2006 · Action, Drama, Fantasy · 1h 54m · R · Chinese
Curator score: 5.3/10 (64.9K ratings)
Unspeakable secrets are hidden within the Forbidden City.
Overview
During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.
Ratings
- Curator score: 5.3/10
- IMDb: 7.0/10
- Letterboxd: 3.54/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 65%
- Metacritic: 70
- TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Zhang Yimou
Production
Beijing New Picture Film Co. Ltd., Elite Group Enterprises, Film Partner International, Sony Pictures Classics, Edko Films, Picasso Pictures
Cast
Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Liu Ye, Qin Junjie, Li Man, Ni Dahong, Chen Jin, Siran Ge, Guo Jiulong, Ma Tianyu, Feng Bai, Ming Li
Curator Review
Verdict
A lavish, emotionally overheated palace tragedy with spectacular production design, operatic melodrama, and bursts of wuxia action. It’s less nimble than Zhang Yimou’s best martial-arts work, but the scale, color, and poisonous family dynamics make it a memorable watch.
Best for
- Viewers who love ornate historical epics
- Fans of Shakespearean palace intrigue and betrayal
- People who prioritize visual design and costume spectacle
- Audiences open to melodrama mixed with action
Skip if
- You want tightly paced action over court drama
- You dislike heightened soap-opera emotions
- You prefer grounded realism to stylized excess
- You’re impatient with slow-burn political scheming
Overview
Curse of the Golden Flower is Zhang Yimou at his most extravagant: a gilded, poisonous court drama where every corridor gleams and every relationship feels fatal. The film trades the elegant abstraction of Hero for something more feverish and domestic, turning imperial power into a family nightmare of suspicion, humiliation, and revenge.
Worth noting
The action is not the main attraction, though when it arrives it lands with the force of a ceremonial catastrophe. What lingers most is the visual control: the impossible density of the sets, the saturated colors, the armor-like costumes, and the sense that the entire palace is a pressure cooker waiting to explode.
Bottom line
It can feel overwrought, even intentionally hysterical, but that excess is part of the appeal. If you’re in the mood for a grand tragic spectacle with a ruthless emotional core, this is a strong pick; if you want a lean wuxia film, it may feel more decorative than devastating.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3.5★) · 192 likes
Action! - Yimou: Vivid Emotions Amongst The Stunning Zhang Yimou returns to a sweeping, lush, and grand world of epics with some wuxia and soap opera, but more importantly, it marks the return of Gong Li after a more than a decade split. While nowhere near as gripping as his first two entries in the genre, the technical work on display in the film alone makes this worth checking out. The production design is so detailed and stunning, which helps… more
reibureibu (4★) · 132 likes
Ornate if overwrought, hypnotic if hysterical, dazzling if delirious, Curse of the Golden Flower takes almost everything Yimou Zhang's done with his previous wuxia films and continues to twist things in its own way; Hero looked at the genre through a lens of memory and history while House of Flying Daggers did so through a lens of romance, and so too does this one through the lens of drama. But not the same type of drama that's present in most… more
Darren Carver-Balsiger (3.5★) · 90 likes
Zhang Yimou is a master of colour. His films are bright and vibrant, utilising many shades to produce endless sequences of beautiful, if shallow, imagery. Zhang Yimou is also a master of scale, able to use an enormous number of extras to provide epic action and expansive storytelling. When there's a core purpose to his works, these skills allow Zhang Yimou to make a masterpiece like Hero. When he's compromised by pandering to the mainstream, he ends up with mediocre… more Zhang Yimou is a master of colour. His films are bright and vibrant, utilising many shades to produce endless sequences of beautiful, if shallow, imagery. Zhang Yimou is also a master of scale, able to use an enormous number of extras to provide epic action and expansive storytelling. When there's a core purpose to his works, these skills allow Zhang Yimou to make a masterpiece like Hero. When he's compromised by pandering to the mainstream, he ends up with mediocre… more
Horror Syndrome (3.5★) · 68 likes
The Tang Dynasty sure did love their vibrant colors, revenge plots, and incest.
Chris 🍉 (5★) · 65 likes
every shot, every costume, every set piece, every song, every action sequence, every line of dialogue, every twist and turn in the plot... all fucking iconic god i love zhang yimou!!! but most importantly, chow yun-fat was SEXY in this!!!!!
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Topics
wuxia, historical epic, palace drama, melodrama, revenge, dynastic intrigue, lush visuals, costume design, Shakespearean tragedy, Chinese cinema