Possibly the best description one can provide of Zhang Yimou’s “Curse of the Golden Flower” is that it is an overambitious epic, unembarrassed by the grandiloquence that dominates so much of the film. Of course, there is nothing wrong with overreaching, particularly when one is a filmmaker of Zhang’s stature and even falling by the wayside is still a grand affair.

Less romantic than its predecessor, “House of Flying Daggers”, this film is nevertheless bedecked in lovely finery, with every scene trying to outdo the last in terms of visual splendour. But here, unlike in both “House of Flying Daggers” and “Hero”, that visual glory only serves to underscore the impermanence and smallness of the human characters that inhabit this beautiful and exotic world. In this, the director follows in the fashion of the great dramatic tragedies of literary history, achieving some rather wonderful moments along the way. Thus, a sequence involving thousands of palace workers clearing away every last trace of an incredibly gigantic battle serves to create far more despair than the bloody battle itself.

In this showcase of man’s petty self-absorption, Zhang Yimou is ably aided by Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li, who bring gilt-edged performances to the screen using a theatrical style that is in such marked contrast to much of what is acting today.

In “Curse of the Golden Flower”, Zhang Yimou has all the makings of a Shakespearean tragedy in his hands, as the story passes admirably well through everything from a king poisoning his own wife, to her plotting a rebellion, to two forms of incest, secret families and pasts, and much more.

Where the film fails to deliver is in its complete inability to bring anything close to a Shakespearean tragedy to a satisfying finale. Thus, the film gets lost in its grandeur, finishing on a hollow, unfulfilling note.

At the end of this tale, there are no lessons to be learnt because the storyteller himself has perhaps little idea of what those lessons are.

RAKESH MEHAR

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