Chinese blockbuster Curse of the Golden Flower premiered
nationwide yesterday. Hopefully it will be the last example of
current Chinese-style films made of huge money, stunning and
shining colors, CGI, costume and weak storyline. Whether the
so-called China's Fifth Generation directors have the talent to
shoot a successful commercial film has been questioned for a long
time now. Sadly, the Golden Flower hasn't provided a
convincing answer.?????
A promotion gala for the film was held last night. Producers
poured over 50 million yuan (US$6.4 million) into Thursday's
ceremony and expanded the film's royal palace to accommodate over
thousand guests to the so-called worldwide premiere, though its
first run of premieres will be limited to China and the US.
However, the gala was pathetic despite the money when the film's
main creators were absent. Zhang Yimou did not show up, due to his
engagement in directing opera The First Emperor for the
Metropolitan Opera in New York. Neither did leading stars Chow
Yun-fat and Gong Li. Pop star Jay Chou and kung fu star Jet Li
appeared to save this gala from disaster, the latter one also
promoting his charity fund there.
The film, with both Chinese and English subtitles, will run for
a month in China while it will be screened in US cinemas from
December 22, the same day as Zhang's opera debuts.
Film producer and Beijing New Picture Chairman Zhang Weiping
believed the film would earn 300 million yuan (US$38.3 million)
from the domestic box office, breaking the 250 million yuan
(US$31.9 million) record set by Hero.
Zhang Yimou, a one-time cameraman, made his fame in the 1980s
when he directed a series of powerful films such as Red
Sorghum, Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern, which
earned him international acclaim.
He started the big-budget Chinese filmmaking wave in 2002 by
making Hero, starring Jet Li and Maggie Cheung, and then
reached the peak of his fame when the film was introduced by
Quentin Tarantino into the US market. Foreigners welcomed it, but
Zhang's very own Chinese fellows on the mainland did not share this
opinion. He made another martial arts movie House of Flying
Daggers later, but failed Chinese audiences once again.
Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang tried to follow this route,
investing hundreds of millions of yuan into their own film
projects, The Promise and The Banquet respectively
released in 2005 and 2006, but both were panned.
Curse of the Golden Flower finally came. It is adapted
from a Chinese classic drama Lei Yu (Thunderstorm) by
Cao Yu, one of the founders of the Beijing People's Art Theater and
China's most famous playwright, who died on December 13 ten years
ago. It contains lavishly magnificent visual arts with a relatively
stronger storyline than other blockbusters. However, action scenes
are too simple and are nothing extraordinary. Gong Li's performance
is the best and with so few crowning jewels, it is time to put an
end to all of the Chinese "blockbusters" full of swordsmen and
emperors in ancient China. Together with The Banquet by Feng
Xiaogang, Golden Flower also views to be nominated for
several Academy Awards, especially the Best Foreign Language
Film.
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Some Chinese movie critics have given this film credit being the
best big-budget Chinese commercial film Zhang ever made. But
ironically enough, Zhang's wish to please foreign audiences,
critics and award committees with his usual stunning colors, vivid
photography and traditional Chinese elements fails him this time.
For example, Variety critics called it Zhang's "strangest
and most troubled film" while Hollywood Reporter said it was
a "disappointing misfire from a great director."
The latest news may not be what Zhang would like to hear:
Curse of the Golden Flower, along with two other Chinese
films -- Zhang's another art film Riding Alone for Thousands of
Miles in 2005 and Prince of the Himalayas in 2006 by
director Hu Xuehua -- received no nominations for the 64th Golden
Globes Awards, announced the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
yesterday. The annual Golden Globes are considered Hollywood's
second most prestigious awards night after the Academy Awards and
their results provide a solid forecast for the Oscars.
Curse of the Golden Flower was also confronted with
controversial attacks from two other films' producers in China.
Beijing Poly-bona Film Publishing Co accused Beijing New Picture of
signing exclusive monopolized contracts with various digital
cinemas to ask those cinemas to only screen Curse of the Golden
Flower for four weeks starting from December 14, in a press
release issued yesterday by Poly-bona. Beijing New Picture denied
the accusation and denounced it as a rumor and shameless promotion.
Poly-bona's latest production, Confession of Pain, will be
premiered on December 22 nationwide.
Still Life, an art film directed by Jia Zhangke, has been
awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 63rd Venice Film
Festival. It reached Chinese screens yesterday. Jia said previously
that he chose the same day as the Golden Flower would sweep
Chinese cinema because he wanted to intentionally sacrifice his
film and box office. He said this is his Performance Art, since not
many people care about a film that can truly touch people's hearts,
they only caring about the big-budget films, only showing off their
money.
"Why I do this is that I actually want to give Chinese audiences
an alternative choice," he said a few days ago at a press
conference, adding that Zhang Yimou and other Fifth Generation
directors lack the skill to make a proper and decent commercial
film.
Cui Weiping, a professor of Beijing Film Academy, gave his view
to the Beijing News yesterday as to why Chinese blockbusters
are often critical flops but box office winners. He said, "A film
shot for market should be satisfying to as many people as possible.
It should be more mainstream than mainstream. It has to reach the
consensus with social mainstream values. Saving Private Ryan
can satisfy American people because most common Americans agree the
value of 'life is more important than any other things', but modern
Chinese may not agree with the values promoted by Hero and
The Banquet since China's society is changing. There's no
unified social value or social consensus."
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, December 15, 2006)
