curiousa2z
Be patient till the last.
Don't get me wrong.
Director Zhang Yimou is aiming for lavish visual, kinetic and emotional overload, and in that he succeeds.
And I loved the sensual feast. The vastness of golden chrysanthemums as far as the eye can see, the gorgeously-arrayed- in- gold - Emperial Family, the stunningly beautiful women.
I wish I could say it was as great as Hero, but it isn't.
The the characters were weaker, and you spent so much time caught up in the inticracies of who's betrayed whom that the viewer doesn't get a chance to really want to root for any particular one of the characters, except perhaps the middle son, Jai.
A fault of the writing, IMHO.
Still, the brilliant Chow Yun-Fat as Emperor is perfectly calculating, cold and remote, an ambitious Captain who clawed his way up through the ranks to become Emperor, commiting acts of such cruelty and duplicity they resonate with repercussions twenty five years later.
One can understand the emotional starvation that leads the Empress (played by the exquisite Gong Li) , to her actions.
The most expensive Chinese production to date, if this sort of spectacle is your cup of tea, it's worth watching for the experience.
Think of a vast and sumptuous Greek tragedy in Tang Dynasty costumes.
Director Zhang Yimou is aiming for lavish visual, kinetic and emotional overload, and in that he succeeds.
And I loved the sensual feast. The vastness of golden chrysanthemums as far as the eye can see, the gorgeously-arrayed- in- gold - Emperial Family, the stunningly beautiful women.
I wish I could say it was as great as Hero, but it isn't.
The the characters were weaker, and you spent so much time caught up in the inticracies of who's betrayed whom that the viewer doesn't get a chance to really want to root for any particular one of the characters, except perhaps the middle son, Jai.
A fault of the writing, IMHO.
Still, the brilliant Chow Yun-Fat as Emperor is perfectly calculating, cold and remote, an ambitious Captain who clawed his way up through the ranks to become Emperor, commiting acts of such cruelty and duplicity they resonate with repercussions twenty five years later.
One can understand the emotional starvation that leads the Empress (played by the exquisite Gong Li) , to her actions.
The most expensive Chinese production to date, if this sort of spectacle is your cup of tea, it's worth watching for the experience.
Think of a vast and sumptuous Greek tragedy in Tang Dynasty costumes.
