MOVIE REVIEW
Curse of the Golen Flower
"Curse of the Golden Flower" was directed by Zhang Yimou, who also directed "House of Flying Daggers". According to critic Scott Tobias, Zhang is " so wrapped up in the stunning décor and choreographed ritual that he loses his grip on the nuts-and-bolts labor of plot and character development". I would have to disagree with Scott. With no doubt, Zhang did focus greatly on the exotic scenery but he, however, did not lose his grip with the story.
The story is based on an empress who tries to seduce her step son, while he is having an affair with his unknown half sister. The emperor tries to mentally damage the empress, which leads to her betrayal with her real son in trying to destroy him.
It is well understood that the characters of the narration are in actual fact messed up. Maybe this is a reason for Scott to believe that Zhang lost it with the narration, but in fact it is not the narration but just the how the narration is difficult for not-so-open minded audience to accept because it is not common.
Overall, "Curse of the Golden Flower" is very much similar to "House of Flying Daggers" because both have vibrant colored sceneries and shakespearans narration. Therefore, this new film by Zhang is another hit for me.
1 comment:
1/1 Good work. Nice job arguing against the reviewer's criticism of the film. You make a good point about the difficulty of the characters and plot of the movie.
In the future, avoid passive voice. This sentence is an example of passive voice:
"It is well understood that the characters of the narration are in actual fact messed up."
Replace with active voice. Who understands these characters? Attribute this understanding to a group of people rather than saying "It is well understood".
Does that make sense?
Good work, as usual--
April
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