Curse of the Golden Flower is director Zhang Yimou's ambitious attempt to blend martial arts action with Shakespearean melodrama.
The film is established in the 10th century during the short-lived Later Tang Dynasty. Despite the historical setting, the movie is not factual on any level, nor does it pretend to be. In fact, the primary source material for Curse of the Golden Flower's screenplay, co-written by Zhang , Wu Nan, and Bian Zhihong, is a Chinese play set in the 1930s. Zhang has re-worked the story to transport it more than a millennium back in time. There are also strong Shakespearean overtones to what transpires. It would be surprising for any literate viewer to sit through Curse of the Golden Flower and not think of Hamlet at least once.
China's royal family is in turmoil. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) is gradually poisoning his wife, the Empress (Gong Li), by adding a deadly fungus to her hourly anemia medicine. The Empress is sexually involved with her step-son, Crown Prince Wan (Lie Ye), who is also carrying on with Chan (Li Man), the daughter of the palace doctor. Prince Jai (Jay Chou) has returned from a long period fighting the Mongols to learn this lesson from his father: "Never take what you have not been given." The youngest son, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie), stews in a cauldron of jealousy because his brothers get all the attention. Meanwhile, the Empress learns of her husband's plans to take her life and plots an intricate plan of revenge that relies upon Jai's loyalty to her.
