Like staring at the sun...

On December 30th, I saw Curse of the Golden Flower, my 4th foreign language film in a row (though it was in Chinese rather than Spanish, as were the previous three).

If I had only one word to describe it, the word to describe it, that word would be extravagant. If I had only two words, it would be breasts. Because, veritably, watching that movie was like staring at the sun. (There was a discussion of this analogy in one episode of Seinfeld. If I recall correctly, it led ultimately to the whole Greenpeace thred.) Anyway, if you watch the movie, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

While I indicate this movie as "martial arts" in the label, that was really only a small part of the film, which was really a drama. I liked it, but not as much as Hero (by the same guy) and especially not as much as House of Flying Daggers (also by the same guy). My understanding is that my ranking of House of Flying Daggers > Hero differs from the norm.

Anyway, Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li did very good jobs as warring emperor and empress, but the ninjas were awesome and former wife (mistress?) of Chow Yun Fat kicked some major ass and was just awesome. The action scenes in the movie were very good (especially the ones with the ninjas) and the scene in which true parentage was revealed was spectacular.

As is usual with this director (Yimou Zhang), color played a major role.

I enjoyed the film and I recommend it, but I saw Curse the day after Pan's Labyrinth, so it's not even the best film I saw that weekend. (And go see Pan's Labyrinth, goddamn it!)