Curse of the Golden Flower

Two weeks ago, I wrote an essay on Chinese cinema—in Chinese. And inevitably, the name Zhang Yimou became the focus of any discussion on Chinese films.

A few days later, Zhang Yimou’s <<满城尽带黄金甲>> Curse of the Golden Flower hit the big screens in cinemas across China. The media hype that began long before the movie was released cumulated in a box office frenzy among cinemagoers in the mainland. Publicity was pumping out of every media outlet possible. Everyday, leading up to the release of the movie, exclusive reports on the making of <<黄金甲>> can be seen on entertainment news programs on TV. Jay Chou’s <<菊花台>> can be heard over the radio, at shopping malls, on the taxi, and at little pirated DVD stalls scattered across town.

I see the music video at least twice a day on TV, listen to it multiple times on my laptop and then hear it again in class when the dude sitting behind me decides to switch into Jay mode. There is no escape.

Last week, I watched the movie. Another visual spectacle for the western eye—with over 1.2 billion people in the Chinese population, you definitely don’t need CGI to generate ten thousand extras for the movie. Definitely worth watching, even if its just for the visual feast.

For those who are familiar with author 曹禺 Cao Yu’s stage drama <<雷雨>>, the convoluted relationships between characters in <<黄金甲>> might not seem so complex after all. A few weeks earlier, we were asked to act out a few scenes from the stage drama <<雷雨>> in class. Adultery between stepmother and stepson, the incestuous relationship between brother and sister were all familiar scenes from the play. Just as <<夜宴>>The Banquet ripped its storyline off Hamlet and in certain scenes, tricked us into thinking we’re watching Lord of the Rings, <<黄金甲>> is a grand version of <<雷雨>> with its characters set amongst the opulence of an imperial palace.

Just a few things that struck me as interesting from a cultural and historical aspect are:

1) The dressing of females during the Tang Dynasty.

Although the Tang Dynasty is commonly described as an era of openness, lavishness and excessive decadence, it is hard to believe that the sight of semi-exposed breasts can be so ubiquitous. In a scene where the palace maids wake up and prepare themselves for the day’s tasks in their chamber, the only thing that one could see on the cinema screen are boobs, everywhere.

2) The concept of 天圆地方

The idea of a circular sky and a square earth, as symbolized by a square within a circle, has been around since ancient times. This can be seen in the movie where there is a circular stage with a square table in it inside the palace. Another symbol of this idea is evident in ancient Chinese coins—a circular coin with a square hole inside it.

3) Chrysanthemums as a symbolic icon

Over 3 million pots of chrysanthemums were specially flown in from Kunming for the production—just to show how important these flowers are in the plot of the movie. Well, it is, because the theme of the movie is actually based on a poem by Tang dynasty rebel 黄巢, who plotted the uprising that eventually led to the empire’s downfall.

<<不第后赋菊>>

待到秋来九月八，我花开后百花杀。

冲天香阵透长安，满城尽带黄金甲