1：comments

Even with flaws and all- and there are a couple at least here in Curse of the Golden Flower- I can only think of a handful of filmmakers that have shot to the moon like this and gotten away with it. Zhang Yimou tried it before with Hero and, for me, sort of didn't pull through completely successfully (not that it hasn't gained its share of fans, and House of Flying Daggers was actually incredible (both for being able to pull off its wacky high-flying action scenes and scoring as a romantic drama) and the top of the pops in Yimou's big-budget melodramas. 'Golden Flower' comes pretty close, if not totally, to 'Flying Daggers' successes, even if it's possibly even more entertaining and acted on a level that goes to the lengths of emotional absurdity. I don't think I could ever see an American action-epic with the kinds of dark, secret, and lost characters in a film like this, and while I would say the action sequences and battles in said Western counterparts might make a little more sense, the pageantry and power of the visuals strikes this one a bit more extraordinary.

I wish I could put the plot into context, but it might take too long, and it's already provided on the main page of the site. Suffice to say though it's a mouthful to try and explain it all in one piece; simply put, we're given a tragedy as it unfolds more so on the personal level up until the last half hour, where Emperor Ping (Chow Yun Fat) and his Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) are in a crippled marriage, and hidden behind the rituals and strict decorum and everyday mercies of circumstance there's hatred on both sides, with the Emperor plotting his wife's murder via poison in the medicine she drinks, and once discovered her plot against him through various channels. There's also the Freudian ties between the sons- two from both of them and one from the Emperor and a previous woman (who will be of significance to much of the picture)- including not only a liaison between mother and step-son, but between a half-brother and half-sister. In between an amazing bout that occurs with quasi-Chinese ninjas storming the Phyisican and his wife's home, including grappling hooks and chaos and a chase, and a massively epic battle sequence in the Emperor's enormous stretch of royal grounds, there are many scenes that are intimately attuned for the actors, and pitched just high enough to make it delirious fun and sobering in sadness.

Sure, it's over-the-top stuff that one might read in another permutation in a trashy supermarket novel, but Yimou is smart enough to let the actors take this material to work much better than one would expect. Gong Li, really, is the centerpiece here as the Empress torn by a life of diligent servitude, only to find that her long-standing sickness is not getting any better (there are a few scenes of power where she almost breaks down in cold sweats and shaking fits), and her allegiances become all the more torn, twisted and fragmented by the poison doing bad things to her mind, and to her tryst with her step-son, and to her intentions towards her wretched husband. It's a great performance, worthy of Luchino Visconti, whom I thought of a couple of times watching the picture in terms of comparing operatic to operatic. Chow Yun Fat, too, is fantastic at being the man who corrupts not necessarily really his control over his empire, but that he can't tell through the third person referrals from his children what's really going on. The scenes of revelations during the last half hour, which include him showing the true state of his hair (a real wicked moment), are some of the best of the film. The rest of the cast, too, does pretty well for themselves, even if one or two of them (mostly the youngest son) don't take too much to the over-the-top styling.

And the over-the-top, sensationalism of the picture does have its drawbacks, too. I'll need to see the film again to totally understand things in terms of the action set-pieces, like which side was which (I did finally get a sense of what happened by film's end, of course, but like with Hero I felt a little boggled). The music is also monotonous from time to time, albeit with touches of grace and just-right flamboyance. And there might be almost TOO much to put into suspension of disbelief with some of the dysfunctions in the family chain(s), like with Prince Wan and his little girl-on-the-side who's really more than either would think of to be. But I really put myself into not just the operatic intonations, the Shakespeare-goes-Eastern story and characters which highlight the madness and decay in royalty, but the epic scope of the picture as well. The costume design, up for an Oscar, is a small marvel, though the production and art design ranks up with the best I've seen in the decade, where the colors are more than lush, as if out of some artist's fever-dream interpretation of what the insides of a palace look like. And Yimou's camera moves along this world- and gets the battle scenes- with the efficiency and skill that he's been building towards since Hero. Even if what you see might seem all too ridiculous, you likely can't take your eyes away.

Is 'Golden Flower' almost too morbid? Perhaps, and the characters run the risk of veering off into being cheap in its melodrama. This being said, it ends up working on all of its levels, more or less, and it thrills while it pokes into the psychologies of its magisterial characters, and it ends on a very stirring note.

2：movie enjoyment

  3:lines

（启奏大王，王后,蒋太医妻女，殿外叩见）.
Your Majesties,Emperor, Empress.the lmperial Doctor's family\Nbeg an audience
王后：宣她们进来(Let them come)
大王：是你?退下(So it was you.Leave us)
蒋太医夫人：大王，我活着回来了.你竟然如此无耻.偷偷摸摸地杀我们全家.你又一次欺骗了我.你就是一个虚伪的小人.我跟我女儿就在你面前.你杀吧.(Your Majesty, I have come\Nto you still alive.It was beneath contempt to attack us under the cloak of darkness,Once again you have managed to deceive me,You coward and hypocrite..my daughter and I stand before you,Go ahead, kill us)
大王：你不该为王后做事，是你害了她(You should not have worked for the Empress,You brought this upon them)
蒋太医夫人：那我女儿和蒋太医又有何罪.他们什么都不知道(And my husband and daughte,They knew nothing about me)
大王：他们知道得太多了(But they knew far too much about me.)
元祥：父王,她到底是谁?(Father...,who is she?)
大王：祥儿(wan!)
王后：元祥,我告诉你她是谁.(I shall tell you who she is)
蒋太医夫人：王后(Empress)
王后：她就是画像上的那个女人,你父王的元配夫人,你的生母(She is the woman in the portrait,Your father's first wife,your birth mother)
元祥：父王,这是真的吗(Father.is this true?!)
大王：是,是真的,现在你满意了吧(.Yes.it is true.ow are you satisfied?.)
王后：对,我就是要让他知道,他的父王是个什么样的人(Yes,I wanted him to know..what kind of a person his father is)
元祥：你不是说她早就死了吗(.Didn't you say she died a long time ago? )
蒋太医夫人：小婵,小婵(chan!)
元祥：母后,你为什么要说出来(Mothewhy did you have to tell us?)
蒋太医夫人：小婵,小婵,小婵(chan,chan)

4:Li Gong

Long the muse of leading Chinese "Fifth Generation" filmmaker Zhang Yimou, Gong Li began her film career when she met the director while in drama school. She and Zhang received considerable international acclaim with their debut, "Red Sorghum" (1987), in which Gong played a meek bride who becomes a powerful woman when she takes over her husband's winery after his death.

One of China's leading young stars of the 1980s and 90s, Gong has appeared in films by other directors ("The Empress Dowager" 1988, directed by Li Hanxiang; "The Terra Cotta Warrior", in which she acted opposite Zhang) but it is in Zhang's films that she is best known internationally. Slender and demure-looking but possessing a naturalistic verve and strength onscreen, Gong Li embodies a new generation of Chinese women, brought up amid ancient tradition but reaching toward feminist values. In the title role of "Ju Dou" (1990), she played a married woman whose torrid affair with her husband's nephew brings about tragic consequences, while in "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991) her character also causes trouble as the newest addition to a man's bevy of wives. Gong Li ventured into comedy with another eponymous heroine in "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) as a woman farmer determined to avenge an injustice done to her husband. In 1993, Gong Li starred in a film by another Fifth Generation stalwart, Chen Kaige, "Farewell to My Concubine" which shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes for best picture.

Zhang once again directed Gong Li in the well-received historical epic "To Live" (1994), which followed a married couple over 30 years of modern Chinese history. Uncharacteristically, Gong Li's role as a devoted wife and mother was overshadowed by that of a strong male lead, actor Ge You, who played her husband. The pair's next collaboration "Shanghai Triad" (1995) offered Gong Li a tour-de-force role as a nightclub chanteuse and gangster's moll. She reunited with Chen Kaige for "Temptress Moon" (1996), in which she essays the role of an isolated, spoiled heiress. A year later, Gong made her English-language debut in Wayne Wang's "Chinese Box,” staring opposite Jeremy Irons. She returned her native land for her next feature, “Piao liang ma ma” (“Breaking the Silence,” 1999), China’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000 about a hard-working single mom who struggles to earn enough money to buy a new hearing aid for her son. Gong Li won Best Actress at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival for her performance.

Gong Li went on to star in what was reported as the most expensive Asian film to date, “The Emperor and the Assassin” (1999), a sweeping historical epic set in feudal China during the 3rd century B.C about the first emperor of a unified China (Li Xuejian), the man sworn to kill him (Zhang Fengyi) and the woman loved by both (Gong Li). In “Zhou Yu’s Train” (2003), she played a painter at a ceramic factory who has fallen in love with a reticent poet (Tony Leung) with whom she travels by train every weekend to engage in a passionate love affair. But on one trip to meet her lover, she meets a cynical traveling veterinarian (Sun Honglei) who also manages to win her affections. Gong Li next appeared in “Eros” (2004), an anthology with short features about eroticism and desire helmed by Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni. In Wong Kar Wai’s piece “The Hand,” she starred as a refined Hong Kong prostitute who seduces a young virginal tailor (Chang Chen) when he arrives at her home for a fitting.

Gong Li reunited with Wong Kar Wai on his magnificently flawed epic, “2046” (2005), a loosely related continuation of the director’s lyrical love story, “In the Mood for Love” (2001). She then had a supporting role in the high profile “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005), the story of a Japanese girl torn from her penniless family and raised in a geisha house where she blossoms into the legendary geisha, Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang). Gong Li played an aging geisha jealous of Sayuri’s ability to captivate the most powerful men in the world. She was then set to star in two big budget features: “Miami Vice” (2006), a remake of the popular 1980s television show starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Ferrell, and “Behind the Mask” (set for release in 2006), a thriller that follows serial killer Hannibal Lecter’s childhood in Lithuania to his arrival in the United States. Both features promised to turn Gong Li into a household name in the states despite her long career in film.

Born: on 12/31/1965 in Shenyang, ChinaJob Titles: Actor, TeacherSignificant Others
Companion: Zhang Yimou. together for eight years; born in 1950; married; separated from Gong Li in 1995
Education
Central Academy of Drama, Beijing, China, 1989
Milestones
1985 Entered the Central Academy of Drama against the wishes of her parents
1987 Film debut, "Red Sorghum"
1990 Played opposite director Zhang Yimou in the adventure comedy, "The Terra Cotta Warrior"
1990 Starred in Zhang Yimou's "Ju Dou"
1991 Reunited with Zhang Yimou to star in "Raise the Red Lantern"
1992 Had title role in "The Story of Qiu Ju", directed by Zhang Yimou
1993 Initial collaboration with Chen Kaige, "Farewell My Concubine"
1994 Reunited with Zhang Yimou for "To Live"
1995 Had co-starring role in "Shanghai Triad"; last film collaboration with Zhang Yimou
1996 Second film with Chen Kaige "Temptress Moon"
1998 Appeared in first English-language role in "Chinese Box", opposite Jeremy Irons
1999 Reunited with Chen Kaige to star in "The Emperor and the Assassin"
2000 Headlined "Breaking the Silence", directed by Sun Zhou
2004 Starred with Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang in "2046" directed by Wong Kar Wai
2005 Cast as Geisha Hatsumomo in Rob Marshall's adaptation of the best selling novel "Memoirs of a Geisha"
2006 Cast as a drug baroness in the feature adaptation of the 80's series "Miami Vice" directed by Michael Mann
2006 Once again worked with director Zhang in "Curse of the Golden Flower," which co-stars Chow Yun-Fat
2007 Starred in "Hannibal Rising" a prequel to "Silence of the Lambs"
Stayed on at the Central Academy of Drama as an instructor
Was the subject of the popular Hong Kong documentary, "The Rising Star: Gong Li", directed by Kam Kwok-leung
巩俐1965年生人，山东济南人。1985年考入中央戏剧学院表演系，毕业后留校任话剧研究所演员。大学二年级时，她被首次执导的张艺谋选中，在影片《红高粱》中扮演女主角九儿。巩俐的表演虽略嫌稚嫩，但清新可人，显示出良好的潜质。而随着《红高粱》的声誉日隆，巩俐也在海内外声誉大震。1988年在影片《代号“美洲豹”》中她饰演护士，获第十二届电影百花奖最佳女配角奖。1989至1990年间，巩俐又主演了两部张艺谋执导的两部影片《菊豆》和《大红灯笼高高挂》，都是旧时代深受家族压抑的女性形象。
代表作品 ：
《红高粱》、《代号美洲豹》、《菊豆》、《大红灯笼高高挂》、《风月》、《秋菊打官司》、《摇啊摇，摇到外婆桥》、《荆柯刺秦王》、《漂亮妈妈》、《中国匣子》等

获得荣誉 ：
第十二届《大众电影》百花奖最佳女配角奖。
第十六届《大众电影》百花奖最佳女主角奖；
获第十三届中国电影金鸡奖最佳女主角奖;
第四十九届威尼斯国际电影节最佳女演员沃尔皮杯奖;
获第四十三届柏林国际电影节摄影机奖（女明星荣誉奖）