This flick was ultimately a disappointment. Despite the stunning visuals, the film had poor character development and failed to tie up loose ends. Zhang Yimou attempted to compensate for the lack of story line with copious amounts of cleavage... but not enough to rescue this tragedy.

I thought that the movie was amazing. It is symbolic on so many levels and everyone can feel sympathetic to it. My whole family watched it together. My dad, who always fall asleep in the movie theater actually was very excited while watching it. Also, my sister who doesn't like movies set within dynasties enjoyed this movie very much. And, my mom loved it as well. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys good movies. Also, I'll like to add that the cast made the movie incredible. Jay Chou proved to be very capable at acting, instead of just being musically talented.… Expand

Visually spectacular and drenched in symbolism. Interesting that a lot of reviewers have a problem with the ending. If you are accustomed to Chinese cinema or television then I guess you won't have such a problem. I can only surmise that it's a Western trait, that films normally end with a 'happy ending'.

Great decorations, outstanding visual FX. Boring plot that makes no sense. Dramatic events portraying the struggle for the throne within the emperor's family in 10 century's China.

Sickly as opposed to visually stunning, Little plot no character dev, and a terrible ending made me feel cheated when the film seemed to accidently end.

Masterpiece.

Uncompromisingly staged and beautiful- in the end I did not find the telling of the story to be very compelling.

Spoiled by not a good ending.

Another sad story. Very little martial arts. Great costumes and scenery. Don't bother.

Tragic and beautiful. Fans of Zhang Yimou will not be disappointed.

I thought the plot/story was much more accessible compared to "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers." Absolutely gorgeous to look at. If not for the last 20 ridiculous minutes of over-the-top carnage, this could have been a very special film. As it is, it's still definitely worth a look.

Interesting storyline and rich color/details. Good special effects.

Disappointing. Yimou's last two films (Hero and Flying Daggers) were beautiful. Curse was too melodramatic and just plain boring. Not recommended.

Visually stunning, but ultimately done in by key, unanswered questions about the characters' backstories: why does Gong Li's character despise the Emperor? What happened between the Emperor and his first wife? If only they'd answered these, it could have been truly great.

One watches this masterpiece with a growing sense of dread. The unforgettably ominous repition of a few musical cords hints of some lurking evil yet to be revealed. When this pitiless monster is fully illuminated in the last act, we know we've seen what true unmitigated brutality it, despite the gilded trapings that prevent us from looking away in revulsion.

Only one scene was not connected: fighting scene. [***SPOILER***]At first, one commander asked not to kill the second Prince, later, he asked his soldiers to take his life. Apart from that, it was very enjoyable. Family affairs, Pride with Ancient Hirachy Background.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen. Laughable fighting scenes, some famous but inexperienced "actors" like Jay, and large titties, that's what's the movie all about.

Excellent film, great stages and acting. The end is unexpected (in a good way) and the movie gets better over time. The first hour is a bit monotonous as it tries to tell you the life inside the royal family but after that, the plot becomes quite interesting.

A thoroughly enjoyable movie. The plot is interesting, but the film is really brought to life by the spectacular costumes, stylish Crouching Tiger-like fight scenes, and a brilliant performance by Gong Li as the empress plotting her husband's overthrow while having some on the side fun with her stepson (surprisingly she is not the baddie).

Just beautiful. Suprising and interesting plot. Gong Li was brilliant.

To say that the visual aesthetic of this film is stunning would be the understatement of the century; this movie is so gorgeous that it almost deserves a viewing on the big screen for that alone, and the battle sequences are among the most epic in the history of wuxia movies. That said, the story of the film is a stunning exemplification of every problem I have with wuxia movies. The overblown symbolism, the soap-opera plot, and the ending so pointlessly depressing that you could almost picture the writer(s) laying awake in bed at night trying to think up the method to cynically jerk the most tears out of the pretentious art-film audience. The emperor in this case is so cartoonishly sadistic that I found myself thinking, "Surely they wouldn't go to all this trouble to hammer into us how evil this guy is without planning to dethrone him in the end," but sure enough, they did exactly that, because having the powerful remain in power and the rebellious characters die is an ingrained staple of this genre, and the moment I realized they were in fact going to do that (about a half-hour short of the finish line), I felt like turning it off in disgust. They raised our hopes at the very end again, only to dash them. Now that's a metaphor for the movie.… Expand

Visually stunning, stellar performance from Gong Li.

It's a visual feast and a pounding drama by the all time best director, Zhang Yimou!

A beautiful film to look at, but ruined by a horrible storyline.

I thought it was very good. The story was different and I have not seen this very often.

Full of grand spectacle, but leaves the audience feeling empty.

Somewhat boring and superficial film; doesn't come close to other similar genre stuff. Relationships don't seem credible, and there are too few of the fantasy choreographed fight scenes to keep interest.

Boring, disappointing, long, maybe bad cast for the story, or... the story just sucks. Whatever it is, this movie was a waste of my money.

At the outset, "Curse of the Golden Flower" will remind some of a slightly more-involving "Marie Antoinette" with its repetitive scenes of court life. When Empress Phoenix(Gong Li) isn't drinking her medicine, she's sewing chrysanthemums for the festival. Otherwise, she's "Spanking the [Chinese] Monkey" with her stepson. Lucky for us, however, a crayon box barfed. You don't watch "Curse of the Golden Flower", you gawk; it contains the most attention-grabbing art direction since Vincent Ward's "What Dreams May Come". A lot of the interiors are so feverishly ornate, even clevage, jiggling clevage, mind you, competes for your undivided attention. Unlike Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and "House of the Flying Daggers", the action here is largely back-ended. If the first two installments of Yimou's martial arts trilogy are popcorn flicks, "Curse of the Golden Flower" is more in line with his early-period works that made him a darling on the film-festival circuit. Although the operatic-like family dysfunctionalism comes perilously close to melodramatic camp, the ravish decor of this hallucigenic vision of early-China manages to normalize the larger-than-life emotions.… Expand

Overall, the film doesn't measure up to Zhang's early masterpieces, but we're somewhat compensated by the gorgeous cinematography and grand staging. In this respect, "Curse of the Golden Flower" on the level of Kurasawa's late epics.

Curse of the Golden Flower is a solid movie that both captivates and entertains. Like many others have said, the costumes and sets really steal the movie. Overall, it was worth seeing and great all around just nothing outstanding.

I love this movie, it always want to make me cry at the end!

Visually stunning. Lavish sets and costumes. But overly melodramatic, and a story that Western audiences may find difficult to swallow. For eye candy alone, it's worth seeing, but if you like tidy story archs and happy endings, look elsewhere.

Gong Li is amazing!!

One of the most beautiful movies ever!

A good name for this movie should be House Of The Flairing Nostrils, as can be seen on the frequent close ups of Gong Li's face as her eyes well up for the Nth time too many. She usually is a great actress but in this film I find her expressions repetitive and monotonous. I also highly doubt that in 10th century China Victoria Secret pushup bras were in fashion.

As expected with Chinese films the use of colour is simply breathtaking, almost like a piece of art in itself. The same can be said of the style and scale of the film. It really does feel epic in every sense of the word. This fails to hide the fact the storyline is kind of basic and predictable, I only have issue with this because fight scenes are incredibly few and far between. I think people expect to see martial arts in Chinese films and this is maybe unfair but the film just doesn't help itself. As usual for Chinese stuff the film comes with a fair degree of cheese, I put this down to cultural differences but it will scare viewers not used to Chinese films. As always the ending is unhappy which I've always adored in Chinese films. It's surely worth a watch but don't expect to be blown away.… Expand