Curse of the Golden Flower

Saw "Curse of the Golden Flower" last night with hubby. The visuals and the attention to details were amazing. I was suddenly pulled into a life that was really rigid and so full of rituals. I enjoyed the movie because of the visuals and the built-up tension it showed. I felt like sitting on the edge of my sofa, anticipating the climax...wondering where the story would take me.

I wonder, though, why are there so many movies with this kind of ending? The ending reminds me of my feeling when I watched "Hero" and "Raise the Red Lantern", and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." All of these movies are Zhang Yimou's movies, btw.

Here's the trailer of "Curse of the Golden Flower":

Some of the visual beauties in "Curse of the Golden Flower" reminded me of some scenes in "Hero", just like in this one (the fight scene starts at 1:00):

Whenever I check out movies in imdb site, I always like clicking on trivia part. Do you know how long it takes to shoot the above fighting scene?

Here's the answer: 

"The lake scenes took almost three weeks to film because the director insisted that the lake's surface had to be perfectly still and mirror-like during filming. Due to the natural currents, this occurred every day for only two hours starting at 10am. To adjust to this phenomenon, the filmmakers arose at 5am each day to begin five hours of preparation and set-up."

And I bet many people still remember the lovely fight scene among bamboo trees in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon":

And while reading this trivia page, I chuckled upon finding these sentences:

"Concerned that Western audiences would not be able to tell Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro apart in the beginning of the film as they are dressed similarly, Yimou Zhang had Kaneshiro's character eat peanuts throughout many of the opening scenes to distinguish them." 

That paragraph describes R2's feelings whenever he watches this kind of martial arts movies. He says that he enjoys watching Asian martial arts movies, but sometimes in movies that are fast-paced, he loses track on the characters he he he he he...

Anyway, I think among those four movies, I still enjoy "Curse of the Golden Flower" more than the others, but for some reason "Raise the Red Lantern" has left the deepest mark in my heart.

Raise the Red Lantern

Has anyone seen this classic movie directed by Zhang Yimou? Well, I just saw it the other day at Crunchyroll. The beauty about sites like Crunchyroll is that I can watch it for free (though you need to subscribe if you want to watch more than 5 clips) he he he he he...No need to download, but you do need to have a fast internet connection. ;-D

If some of you have seen Raise the Red Lantern, what do you think about it? I'm GLAD I wasn't born in that age and place where concubines abounded. I felt sad in a way when watching the "politics" among the concubines as they tried to grab the attention of the husband.

I can't imagine how life is for people who have many wives or husbands. How can a man be fair to more than one wife?

One thing that intrigued me was that the main character was a university student for 6 months and she made bad choices while being a concubine that really drove her to the edge. It's very clear that even though you're "educated" (because the other concubines weren't highly educated as she was), that doesn't mean that you're wise. Wisdom comes with experience.

It's sad to think that women that day lived like that, but it's reality...History is history and hopefully the sad parts in history won't be repeated.

Oh, almost forgot...another thing that intrigued me is how it feels like to have a foot massage like in the movie. All the concubines are dying to have that special foot massage again he he he he he...Interestiiinnggg!!!

glitter-graphics.com

P.S. If any of you is thinking of watching the movie in Crunchyroll, one word of advice from me is that DO NOT read the comments at the side since they may contain spoilers!!! The movie consists of 4 parts and there are plenty of comments already and one time I accidentally read some comments while waiting for the movie to load and that was a BIG mistake he he he he he...