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SONY PICTURES CLASSICS |
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CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER
The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon brand of martial-arts epic has become its own genre. Hero, House of Flying Daggers, The Promise and The Banquet are replete with swordplay set-pieces, elevated sentiments, subtly elaborate color schemes. With this film, Zhang Yimou (China's premier director) was after something riskier. Reunited on a movie set with Gong Li (China's premier film actress) for the first time since their professional and personal breakup 11 years ago, he decided on a tale of palace intrigue, in which Gong Li's Empress is at domestic war with Chow Yun-fat's Emperor. She's cheating on him, he's trying to poison her. Was this a resumption of domestic hostilities between the star and the auteur? Probably it's just a ripping yarn, painted in spectacularly lurid colors, and played at a pitch almost Almodovarian in its fevered intensity. Daring and splendid.
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