Curse of the Golden Flower

Interesting tragedy, with subtitles. Curse of the Golden Flower has the same director as Hero and House of Flying Daggers, and a very similar flavor. The emphasis is on lavish sets with flamboyant color. Oh, yes, and extremely twisted characters. There are aspects of Romeo and Juliet, and of MacBeth and of Hamlet in it. It's well-crafted, and haunting, but...I didn't really like most of the characters, and the ones that I did like, well... it's a tragedy: you can figure it out.

The story centers on the imperial family: Emperor, Empress, their two sons, and a son from the Emperor's first wife. Think of every possible soap opera plot of a scheming family, stir them around and keep the most sordid bits, and you've got a good idea of what the family is like. It's very nearly accurate to say that everyone is plotting against everyone else. And then there's the Imperial Doctor's family... I don't want to spoil details, so I'll leave the familial relationships at that.

I think the main thing I didn't like was the ending. Now the question is whether I can describe why I didn't like it without spoiling it... Lemme put it this way: the worst "bad guy," while he'll be miserable for the rest of his life, is not sufficiently destroyed for my tastes, and the character for whom I had the most sympathy is in no way freed at the end. I would have liked some resolution on both of those issues.

I'd recommend it for the flamboyant atmosphere, and the nicely interwoven plots... I'd just like to rewrite the ending a bit.