Zhang Yimou’s “Curse of the Golden Flower” is blessed by an even grander color scheme than he used in “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers.”
The film also is cursed by its own excesses, the rich humanity evident in earlier Zhang epics lost amid a turgid glut of bad computer-generated effects and the characters’ self-absorbed blood feuds.
It seems as if Zhang felt he needed to top the remarkable ballet of action he presented with Jet Li in “Hero” and Zhang Ziyi in “House of Flying Daggers.”
The best moments of those films, though, were the small-scale actions of individuals. In “Curse of the Golden Flower,” Zhang throws armies of digital constructs on the screen as though trying to rival the battles of “The Lord of the Rings” movies.
The digital creations look cheap and awkward, while the palace intrigue at the heart of the story feels forced and amorphous. Zhang, who co-wrote the screenplay, aims for Shakespearean scope and melodrama, but his characters remain remote and uninvolving, a waste of the enormous screen presence of his two stars, Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li.
Also wasted is the glorious production design, for which the colors and detail are breathtaking.
The film basically is a domestic squabble turned venomous. Set in 10th century China, the story centers on an emperor (Chow) and empress (Gong) who both harbor nasty secrets and engage in a vicious showdown for control of the palace.
The convoluted story unfolds through rather arbitrary revelations and actions involving the two leads, the three young princes (Liu Ye, Jay Chou and Qin Junjie), the imperial doctor (Ni Dahong) and his wife (Chen Jin) and their daughter (Li Man).
There’s infidelity, incest, bitter betrayal and savage recrimination at every turn, yet most of it is hollow. Zhang reveals little of the internal motivations driving the characters, instead plunking viewers down in the middle of a family war and leaving it to the audience to decide why these people might be behaving so badly.
The filmmakers’ are far more interested in their computerized creations. A digital cast of thousands of combatants overwhelms “Curse of the Golden Flower” again and again. They run and fight so lifelessly and robotically that you half expect to see a video-game score counter tallying the kills in a corner of the screen.
The backdrops to the action — a stark mountain pass, glittering corridors, the palace’s magnificent exterior — are majestic. Scenery only goes so far when the human factor is lacking, however.
The stately Gong looks fantastic, the regal Chow looks cruelly calculating. Yet lacking the inner spark a richer script would provide, even they blend into the scenery.
Gong, who rose to stardom in such Zhang films as “Red Sorghum,” “Ju Dou” and “Raise the Red Lantern,” reunites with the director for the first time since 1995’s “Shanghai Triad.” It’s a shame they could not have resumed their cinematic partnership with a better story.