Chores + Curse of the Golden Flower
May. 20th, 2007 09:51 amYesterday, recognizing an unproductive mood, I called brother and went into high functioning mode. Together we prepped the swamp cooler for the summer season. I weeded the front patch. (Bind weed being beautiful, but unfriendly to the xeric plants.) WE FINISHED THE STAIRS. (I pitching in to make it go faster so we could go have a beer.) Then we trotted off to brewspot, had a beer, and later watched Curse of the Golden Flower, which I didn't particularly enjoy.
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borbor_chan made a comment about communist propaganda often using violence to show the negative times of pre-enlightenment. Curse of the Golden Flower definitely has this element as it is about the "bad old days" of the decadent and corrupt Tang dynasty. I always get confused about this aspect of Chinese films, because I see the feudal system as a direct predecessor of the current communist system. The communist system still supports an oligarchy* with most of the citizens functioning to support a hierarchical system with little control over their lives. And all the paegentry of the movie, which centers around an uprising during a festival, is very much like communist propoganda with all the singing, iconography, and color coded silks and flowers.
"Where are the ribbon sticks?" I asked.
"Sarah, I think you're thinking of Korea," brother said.
There is also this element of family tragedy where people do totally useless things and sacrifice their lifes to the bad ideas generated by their parents. This is a noble sentiment in some countries, but comes across as being kind of ridiculous in this one. But a sufficiently tragic tone comes across in the film, along with some unfortunate and taboo familial relationships, and the inevitable, Hamlet-style, blood bath at the end.
Most disappointing is the action sequences were not nearly so cool as they were in Hero and House of Flying Daggers. There was no rain fight (that opening scene in Hero still awes me in its combination of virtuosity, texture, and sound.) There is no bamboo forest. The fighting takes place primarily between clashing armies a la LoTR. (Though there is a very cool defensive seige engine. And terrifying assassins who carry throwing scythes on ropes. Totally ghoulish in masks and black.)
Overall I don't recommend it, but I have to say the costuming and set design was gorgeous, and the color eye-popping. They used art glass lit from within to create many of the elements of the palace. It borders on psychedelic. There's lots of color coding throughout the film to create emotion, patterns, and spectacle. And my brother commented that the Tang period seems to have lots in common with the 18C in Europe.
"Like Versailles!" I said. "All that intrigue and protocal."
"And boobs," he added. "I don't think I've ever seen so much cleavage in a Chinese film."
* Squaresville has an irrigation ditch that runs through the center of town called The Oligarchy. We used to swim in it and go there to catch crawdads. The school children, not familiar with the term 'oligarchy' called it The Yellow Garky. We are assumed 'garky' was another word for 'ditch' and occasionally referred to other ditches as 'garkies.' This was a larger linguistic phenomena than my household. It was at least school-wide at the time.
borbor_chan made a comment about communist propaganda often using violence to show the negative times of pre-enlightenment. Curse of the Golden Flower definitely has this element as it is about the "bad old days" of the decadent and corrupt Tang dynasty. I always get confused about this aspect of Chinese films, because I see the feudal system as a direct predecessor of the current communist system. The communist system still supports an oligarchy* with most of the citizens functioning to support a hierarchical system with little control over their lives. And all the paegentry of the movie, which centers around an uprising during a festival, is very much like communist propoganda with all the singing, iconography, and color coded silks and flowers."Where are the ribbon sticks?" I asked.
"Sarah, I think you're thinking of Korea," brother said.
There is also this element of family tragedy where people do totally useless things and sacrifice their lifes to the bad ideas generated by their parents. This is a noble sentiment in some countries, but comes across as being kind of ridiculous in this one. But a sufficiently tragic tone comes across in the film, along with some unfortunate and taboo familial relationships, and the inevitable, Hamlet-style, blood bath at the end.
Most disappointing is the action sequences were not nearly so cool as they were in Hero and House of Flying Daggers. There was no rain fight (that opening scene in Hero still awes me in its combination of virtuosity, texture, and sound.) There is no bamboo forest. The fighting takes place primarily between clashing armies a la LoTR. (Though there is a very cool defensive seige engine. And terrifying assassins who carry throwing scythes on ropes. Totally ghoulish in masks and black.)
Overall I don't recommend it, but I have to say the costuming and set design was gorgeous, and the color eye-popping. They used art glass lit from within to create many of the elements of the palace. It borders on psychedelic. There's lots of color coding throughout the film to create emotion, patterns, and spectacle. And my brother commented that the Tang period seems to have lots in common with the 18C in Europe.
"Like Versailles!" I said. "All that intrigue and protocal."
"And boobs," he added. "I don't think I've ever seen so much cleavage in a Chinese film."
* Squaresville has an irrigation ditch that runs through the center of town called The Oligarchy. We used to swim in it and go there to catch crawdads. The school children, not familiar with the term 'oligarchy' called it The Yellow Garky. We are assumed 'garky' was another word for 'ditch' and occasionally referred to other ditches as 'garkies.' This was a larger linguistic phenomena than my household. It was at least school-wide at the time.
