Within the Royal Family, Emperor Ping dominates the family with an golden fist. His wife, Empress Phoenix, is someone that he does not love and finds a threat to his continued reign as Emperor. Thus, with the help of the Imperial Doctor, the Emperor poisons the Empress with an exotic fungus mixed into her daily medicine. Within a month, the Empress will be senile or dead.

The Emperor has 3 three songs : Prince Wan, Prince Jar and Prince Yu. Prince Wan is the oldest son and was born from a prior marriage of the Emperor. Prince Jar, the second oldest, would be the first son conceived between Emperor Ping and Empress Phoenix. Has has been banished to the outskirts of the kingdom for the past 3 years and arrives just in time to take part in the Emperor’s Chrysanthemum Festival. Prince Yu is the youngest son, who is held in lower regard by both of his parents.

Empress Phoenix with the help of a mysterious lady, soon discovers that her medicine has been poisoned by an exotic fungus. She decides to retaliate immediately and enlists the help of her eldest son, Prince Jar. The Empress Phoenix plans to take out the Emporer during the Chrysanthemum Festival.

So with those facts known, I’ll describe my thoughts and impressions of “The Curse of the Golden Flower.” An appropriate person to introduce “Curse of The Golden Dragon” would probably be someone like Robin Leach. With his thick British accent, I can just imagine Mr. Leech lavish words like “grand” “opulent” and “ornate” on Curse of the Golden Flower. This is because “Curse of the Golden Flower” successfully shoots for the moon when it comes to the notion of an epic film.

The strongest aspect with Curse of the Dragon would be the visuals. From the amazing yellow fields of chrysanthemums in the Emperor’s courtyard, to the golden costumes worn by the Emperor and Empress, to the psychedelic (Willa Wonka inspired) halls of the Royal Palace, visuals were just jaw-dropping spectacular. The action sequences contained a few mystic Crouching Tiger like martial art scenes, but the most memorable action scenes occurred during the climax of the film. There was a decidedly “Star Wars” like finale that occurred, with the Emperor’s black clad assassins gliding out of the midnight sky to eliminate all of the Emperor’s enemy. The final battle between the Emperor’s soldiers against the Chrysanthemum soldiers were like a kid’s ultimate dream battle coming true to life. Remember, this comes from someone that enjoys martial arts/action films about as much as your run of the mill Ultimate Fighting Championship match or a re-run of the Jerry Springer show. The visuals and action sequences were just that good.

The actual storyline in Curse of the Golden Flower was just average. The story is a “loose” fictional account of the Royal Family of China during the 10th Century Tang Dynasty. As expected, within the Royal Family lies treachery, deceit, sexual intrigue and other run of the mill Shakespearean twists. The Empress has had a 3 year affair with her step son, Prince Wan, while Prince Wan has been more recently sleeping with lady Chan (the last girl in the world he should be sleeping with). There’s also the quest for power by the Emperor’s sons . As an example of the mediocre plot, when Empress Phoenix revealed the true identity of the mysterious lady known as Mrs. Jiang (lady Chan’s mom), the surprise twist felt like a tired old writing trick lifted from Star Wars or OldBoy.

The acting by the star studded cast, was surprisingly mediocre, accentuated more by the impressive names of Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li as the film’s two main stars. Throughout the film, Chow Yun-Fat was just “decent” in his performance as Emperor Ping. Honestly, if I didn’t know it was Chow Yun-Fat , I wouldn’t have thought twice about the actor’s performance. The tears that he shed for a dying son in particular stands out in my mind, for being hokey. Gong-Li, on the hand, played Empress Phoenix in a more over the top manner, which at times were more fun to watch and at other times felt slightly hammy. The Emperor’s sons varied in quality, with Jay Chou standing out the most for his balanced portrayal of Prince Jar.

Usually I’ll take a great story with average visuals over a film with great visuals and an average story, but because Curse of the Golden Flower provides visuals that go well beyond “great,” the average story and a surprisingly lackluster performance by both of the main stars were not minded. Make no doubt about it, “Curse Of The Golden Dragon” is all about grandness in scale and visual opulence. As a nice change of pace from movies I normally watch, I thoroughly enjoyed Curse of the Golden Dragon from start to finish. Also, the dvd transfer of “Curse Of The Golden Flower” was one of the best that I have ever seen. If you crave an epic period piece, with visuals that are simply second to none, than check out “Curse of the Golden Dragon.”