The first ten minutes sitting through this movie was a bit of a shock. There was gold and jewels and jade and colored glass all over the palace. The young slave girls were dressed in tight dresses that displayed their heaving bosoms, the Empress is all dressed in gold embroidery. Everyone, and I mean everyone in this film looks really gorgeous. So what's the problem that I see? Everything was too much. There was too much glitter, too much gold, after awhile, it just got too much that I felt vaguely disgusted by what I was looking at. And I think that's what the director wanted.
This movie is about the ugliness of a dysfunctional family (in this case, the royal family of China). It did not matter that the Emperor and his family lived amidst such great wealth and extravagance, they were miserable and they were also in the midst of destroying themselves. This is not an easy movie to watch as it goes through betrayal, incest (really yucky stuff) and murder.
To put it briefly, the Empress knows she's being poisoned by the Emperor and she wreaks such vengeance that it breaks apart the whole family.
I thought the acting was very good. Gong Li is very watchable and she makes the viewer feel both sympathetic, yet disgusted towards her. Chow Yun Fat shows such evil and arrogance in his role as the Emperor. And yet, as the Emperor, he still has a certain charm. The Emperor may be pretty rotten to the core, but Chow Yun Fat in this character makes the viewer feel for the emperor too. During this film I was mesmerized by Chow Yun Fat's remarkable performance. If you are not interested in anything else in this film, at least see this film for Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li's performances.
The problems with this film has a lot to do with pacing. There were some spots during this long movie where everything just dragged. A man sitting across from me in the theater fell asleep and started snoring. That's not good at all! Also, during the film, a man and his kids quickly ran into the theater and sat down. I guess they were expecting some sort of action, kung fu movie, which this film was not in spite of some breathtaking fighting towards the end of the movie. After about fifteen minutes, the man took his kids out of the theater and left. I think I heard him complaining loudly that there wasn't any action going on. Word of warning, read some movie reviews before taking your children to see a specific movie. This movie was definitely not for young children.
It's not a great movie, it's a little pretentious, rent and watch it for the performances.
This movie is about the ugliness of a dysfunctional family (in this case, the royal family of China). It did not matter that the Emperor and his family lived amidst such great wealth and extravagance, they were miserable and they were also in the midst of destroying themselves. This is not an easy movie to watch as it goes through betrayal, incest (really yucky stuff) and murder.
To put it briefly, the Empress knows she's being poisoned by the Emperor and she wreaks such vengeance that it breaks apart the whole family.
I thought the acting was very good. Gong Li is very watchable and she makes the viewer feel both sympathetic, yet disgusted towards her. Chow Yun Fat shows such evil and arrogance in his role as the Emperor. And yet, as the Emperor, he still has a certain charm. The Emperor may be pretty rotten to the core, but Chow Yun Fat in this character makes the viewer feel for the emperor too. During this film I was mesmerized by Chow Yun Fat's remarkable performance. If you are not interested in anything else in this film, at least see this film for Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li's performances.
The problems with this film has a lot to do with pacing. There were some spots during this long movie where everything just dragged. A man sitting across from me in the theater fell asleep and started snoring. That's not good at all! Also, during the film, a man and his kids quickly ran into the theater and sat down. I guess they were expecting some sort of action, kung fu movie, which this film was not in spite of some breathtaking fighting towards the end of the movie. After about fifteen minutes, the man took his kids out of the theater and left. I think I heard him complaining loudly that there wasn't any action going on. Word of warning, read some movie reviews before taking your children to see a specific movie. This movie was definitely not for young children.
It's not a great movie, it's a little pretentious, rent and watch it for the performances.