Curse of the Golden Flower

[rispacooper]

Yet another epic Chinese action-soap with stunning visuals, like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Only this one actually has a plot that interests me. Plus, Gong Li. The woman is hot.

Kind of like...visually stunning (duh) and not dialogue-centered A Lion in Winter. Family drama, but when you're the Imperial Family, your drama affects a lot more than you. I love it.

So you get Chow Yun Fat *lovelovelove* playing wicked and yet awesome Emperor, slowly poisoning his Empress (Gong Li)with a drug that will slowly drive her insane and take away all her mental faculties. And she knows it, but takes her poison anyway, feigning ignorance while she plots revenge.

Awesome. Epic. (Only, you know, Chinese action-soap, so no happy ending). *And* I am totally crushing on Prince Jai even if he did do something kinda pointless at the end there. He's badass in a cutesy way. Wonder who he could be in the Saga, Pooky.

Anyway...

Comments

[imre-nico.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec on Infamous, btw- Mr. Nico and I loved it.

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

I especially enjoyed his attempt to buy cheese in Kansas and finding only Velveeta.

A friend of mine from Texas once tried to cheddar (yellow cheddar even) and her whole family freaked out because it wasn't American. :)

[imre-nico.livejournal.com]

Dude. "American" cheese has to be one of the scariest words in our common vernacular.

...unless, like in Death of a Salesman, you add the word "whipped" in front of it. >_

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

Oh that's just gross. Just imagining whipped American cheese....

Just the thing to eat, when you live in a van down by the river.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

You know, that movie didn't move me at all. It is possibly the most visually stunning move I've ever seen and yet it was cold. Perhaps too much attention to the visuals. I didn't care about the fate of any of the characters. I assume all of them were killed because I couldn't watch it to the end when the gore started big time. I was all set to love this on the scale of Hof FD and CTHD, but just thought, oh, he's toast, she's toast, oh, he's toast, too. Maybe toast.

I will say that the acting is superb. The entire cast is stellar. I don't know why it failed for me other than I found myself doing a body count as opposed to caring about the bodies stacking up.

Yes, Gong Li is extremely hot. I would kill for that boobage.

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

See, I kinda hated House of Flying Daggers. I didn't care about any of the characters at all.

Though lately, I'm wondering if I'm just culturally not appreciating the intent behind Chinese movies like this. I don't relaly mind that they're sad, but I was noticing how the story is always set up exactly like a Western movie might be (you see hints at the beginning that lead you to believe certain things about the ending) and then it never ever happens that way. Liek you're expecting the son in CotGF to challenge the father to epic battle...and it never happens. Which is fine, but I always expect it.

Maybe the point is that all your scheming and expectations mean shit when confronted with someone/thing more powerful than you.

Now that is depressing.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Maybe the point is that all your scheming and expectations mean shit when confronted with someone/thing more powerful than you.

Like ne ne confronting pere St. Cyr?

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

Are you implying that I write like a Chinese epic?

ha!

That has got to be Pooky's influence.

Read Breakfast at Tiffany's btw. It was okay. I didn't quite get the point, if there was meant to be one. Liek, that was a nice story, but it left no impact on me and I get the feeling it was meant to.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

BaT is not his best. Oh, perhaps at his most amusing and fey without sliding into the bitchiness he became famous for. Those years when he was a Puck and not an Ariel. In Cold Blood is really his masterpiece. His short stories are damn good as well.

The interesting thing about BaT is that it set the groundwork for the unseen narrator of ICB. Most of his fiction has a detached quality about it that I like. He brings that into his interviews as well. When he was writing ICB he interviewed a lot of Death Row types. I guess trying to get into Perry's head. He interviewed one of the Manson gang. Tex, I think. Pretty chilling interview and he does that detached narrator VERY well. He always claimed to be against the death penalty but then ICB would have never have been finished had those two not been hanged. What a horrible moral dilemma.

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

Ever read (or watch the Showtime tv series adaptation of) the Dexter books? Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Dearly Devoted Dexter.

Just about your friendly neighborhood serial killer, going about his business. Very confused about why he does what he does, but doing it anyway, oh so calmly. Super detached narrator, but it works.