Chen Kaige (The Promise) and Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers), the two most successful art-film directors to bring Chinese mainland film to the world stage, have now become synonymous with empty commercial fare. Of late, Chen and Zhang have been engaged in a battle to gain the recognition of both international audiences and film festivals. Yet, ultimately, Zhang’s costly wuxiapian (chivalrous martial arts film) which employ an expensive formula of jaw- dropping visuals, high-tech special effects, an all-star cast and a wafer-thin plotline, fails to shine like his earlier art-house films.

With Curse of the Golden Flower, Zhang’s latest effort simultaneously released in China and the US this past December, the 55-year-old director has upped the ante. Even before CGF’s shooting started, Zhang proclaimed some grand ambitions: to compete for the Oscars, to break the RMB 300 million mark in China and to exceed the American box-office takings of Hero in 2004 (over USD 50 million). This was a conspicuous attempt to surpass the USD 42.5 million Chen earned for The Promise released in December 2005.

CGF, which will come in at a mere USD 45 million, is nonetheless China’s most expensive film to date, and promises more gaudy costumes and sets and breathtaking cinematography. The director has marshalled 20,000 Chinese extras to play the troops, along with a team of tailors to sew 3,000 handmade costumes at a cost of USD 1.3 million. All in all, the battle scenes account for a sizeable chunk of the budget. Zhang recalls that “several hundred thousand RMB disappeared in one cut.”

His all-star cast also did little to rein in the film’s mushrooming budget. To connect with foreign audiences and critics, Zhang gathered a cast of bankable and internationally-famous movie stars, including his former girlfriend Gong Li (Miami Vice, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Chow Yun-fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) supported by two local sensations, Taiwanese pop idol Jay Chou and Chinese mainland thespian Liu Ye. What’s more, the lavish cinematography of cameraman Zhao Xiaoding (House of Flying Daggers) and the bombastic score of Shigeru Umebayashi (2046) help lift the film to international standards. Zhang is only frugal when it comes to CGI (computer generated imagery) as he has sworn to ”avoid bragging technology”.

Like many wuxiapian that came before it, CGF is an exotic and at times erotic piece. The story takes place in a harem with an array of luscious Tang Dynasty babes, complete with spilling cleavage, as was the fashion of the time. The original story, Thunderstorm, written by the ‘Chinese Shakespeare’ Cao Yu, was set in the 1930s and chronicles the disintegration of an aristocratic family before the Japanese invasion.

Set in the Tang dynasty, the film version takes the court intrigues and familial feuds to an almost excessive level. The film begins with Prince Jai (Jay Chou), who returns to the palace to reunite with his mother the Empress (Gong), whom he hasn’t seen for years. The Emperor (Chow) has had a falling-out with the Empress over her affair with Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her son-in-law. Wan wants to elope with his sweetheart, Chan (Li Man), the daughter of the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong). Seeking a neat solution to the problem, the Emperor orders the doctor to drug and incapacitate the Empress.

The tragic conspiracies are intriguing, but the unravelling plots and unlikely revelations make the story hard to digest. CGF certainly has more to it than The Promise, with a plethora of twists and turns and some truly moving scenes, but when it’s too much, it’s too much. Zhang’s fifteenth movie will, no doubt, make film history on account of its excesses. One can only imagine what Chen will do to match it in his next effort (Mei Lan Fang).

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
January 2007 issue