Curse of the Golden Flower was one of the worst films I've ever watched. And considering I've low standards for movies, that says a lot.

On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes rates it at 60%, and IMDB at 7.0.

Proof that Orientalism is well and alive today!

At first I thought the cleavage was a marketing ploy, but my brother-in-law went to Xi'an and saw some of the Tang dynasty murals in the mausoleums and there was a lot of cleavage.

Someone in IMDB: "While the Tang Dynasty was very open-minded and liberal, I don't believe the fashion revolved around cleavage-enhancing dresses with push-up action. From paintings depicting fashion at the time, it appears that low cut dresses emphasized roundess of shoulders and a deep neckline, but not Victoria's Secret-esque cleavage. Besides, in interviews with the costume designer for the film, she stated that Zhang Yimou asked her to sex up the dresses."


Someone: they've a skewed perspective
i think i saw someone comment on rotten, that even jay, on his 2nd cinematic appearance, was amazing

i beg to differ
the whole theatre was laughing at his attempts to emote


Addendum: FlickFilosopher.com:

"Seriously, where can I get some of whatever Zhang Yimou was on when he was directing this grotesquerie of a cinematic disaster? I mean, yes to opulence, yes to passion, yes to political murder and courtly intrigue and illicit sex and all that. But no -- please god no -- to histrionics overblown on a nuclear scale and ludicrousness that blots out the sun and total disconnect from reality that would make even Bugs Bunny go Wha...?

You have to understand where I’m coming from when I state that Curse of the Golden Flower is one of the very worst films of 2006...

But before too long you start to realize that none of it makes sense -- and I mean way beyond the not-making-sense that movies can often get away with. You start to lose track of who’s doing what to whom, and why, and then you come to appreciate that you never knew, actually, what the hell was going on. And then ninjas are attacking some faction or other, and we don’t know who they’re working for. And then armed and armored soldiers are swarming out of nowhere like orcs leftover from The Lord of the Rings who heard there was some good fighting to be had and rushed over."