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

电影中的中国

作者: 叶淑仪

谁是张艺谋? 一个外国人可以很快地说出几部张艺谋导演的电影--<<英雄>>，<<十面埋伏>>和将要上影的<<满城尽带黄金甲>>。但是一问到什么是中国电影，中国人和外国人的理解远远有差别。

第一次接触到的中国电影是1991年的<<大红灯笼高高挂>>。那时候的所谓中国电影就是指在国外或者西方社会受到关注的一些电影。跟大陆电影扯上关系的来来往往都是这几个大名: 张艺谋，陈凯歌，巩俐。<<大红灯笼高高挂>>，<<霸王别姬>> 和<<红高粱>>带给了西方观众一个充满神秘感的东方世界。而一个独特的巩俐代表了东方女性的魅力和精神。这些电影也成为了外国人看中国的一个小窗口。

但是这些电影为什么在外国会这么受欢迎呢? 这是因为它们反映的中国并不是一个真实的社会而是一个想像中所谓东方的概念。封建社会的限制；东方女人的苦劳；社会与人间的争执以作为这些电影的主题。武侠故事中的<<卧虎藏龙>>，<<英雄>>和<<十面埋伏>>带给了西方观众一个美丽神奇的古代中国。对中国一无所知的外国观众就深深地被电影里的东方世界吸引了。

难到在外国人眼里的中国只是电影上所描述的温柔女子，满天飞的武侠英雄，绿油油的竹林，庄重的宫廷，还有雪山蓝湖。在事实上，这些只是特地为外国观众所拍的电影，把全球市场作为目标。我们现在所看到的中国电影的底线就是: 观众喜欢看怎么样的故事我们就拍怎么样的电影。

那在实际上，什么才是中国电影? 现在的中国电影有三大标志: 大制作，大明星，大票房。还有一个重要的秘诀就是要演古装片。冯小刚最新的作品<<夜宴>>也是跟着这条道路走。隆重的制作和著名巨星张子怡令这部电影达到了高票房。

但在现实上，这些电影并不代表一个真实的中国。电影只是一个小小的窗口，让我们看到一个又美丽又充满神秘感的东方世界。这就是西方人所期待的神秘东方。这就是电影中的中国。

This essay was written for the Tsinghua Chinese Language speech contest.