CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER: Saw it. Loved it! Chow Yun-Fat & Gong Li rule!

I'm willing to take a chance on anything with Gong Li in it generally. And given thatn Raise the Red Lantern and Shanghai Triad are two favorites, I'd say the same about Zhang Yimou for tha tmatter.

I saw her for the first time in 'Geisha' and thought she should have had the lead role (tho I understand why she didn't). But I'm no judge--all Asian women cause me to go weak-in-the-knees !! OK back now to real life...

I really look forward to the BD release of this movie, as I'm a fan of both actor/actress.

Check out Shanghai Triad. It's a great flick. And, for that matter, she's also in the epic Farewell, My Concubine which everyone should also see who hasn't.

Come on Matt. spoiler?

the end is the beginning is the end?

I used to have the hots for Gong Li, but now I'm more into Zhang zhiyi. Last time I saw Gong Li was in that Miami Vice remake. They made her look horrible in that movie. She was pasty as hell, and everyone knows her english isn't good, but they coached her to speak english with a spanish accent for the movie.

But for this movie, I noticed in the trailers: All of the women are wearing super tight tube tops. I guess Zhang yimou has a thing for cleavage now

Gong Li looks ravaged by time,happens to everyone unfortunately.However in her case,it seemed to happen overnight.

I haven't seen all of the biggies this year (Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, a few others) but this is the best movie I've seen so far this year.

In my opinion, Yimou can teach virtually every other top "prestige" director how it's done in their own specialty; Scorcese's acting showcases, Jackson's spectacular battles that are supposed to matter to us, Spielberg and Eastwood's climactic pathos, etc. You name the specialty, I think there's a good possibility that Yimou does it better.

ROFLMAO

Thank God I wasn't eating cause it would have been on my monitor. I think a lot of us would "Bang that Gong" I think I may have to take the lady to see this one.

The R3 is available now if you can't wait for the 3/27 release.

http://www.cd-wow.us/detail_results_...t_code=1875787

sweet. i'm tempted to get it, but the BD version is not too far from now....

Sorry.

Of the 3 movies, this one has the worst plot from Zhang. Think he sold out; there is not much social redeeming value here. A high budget trash.

I'll be the judge of that come 3/27...just as long it's not as lame and overated as crouching tiger, bend over dragon.

Just saw this on the R3 SD DVD--it did look sharp as a tack (oppo upconverting to Panny AE1000, 72" screen). Way sharper than the new Zoke SD version of House of Flying Daggers. There's plenty of potential for a terrific HD version if this is anything to go by. Colours were amazing, and blacks spot on; occasional digital noise was distracting in some scenes though, and the transfer was slightly uneven with one or two shots appearing a little softer, so the R1 is probably worth waiting for. Still very good in the interim though for those who loved this flim and are multi-region.

***Mini spoiler to follow***
Film itself was a bit disappointing, it tries really hard but apart from Gong Li the cast is utterly charmless so it's hard to care about the intended tragedy. The incest subplot had potential but got cut short. Spectacular, certainly, but lacking Zimou's customary engaging qualities.

Yeah, but that movie was directed by Ang Lee, and was targeted at Western viewers. It was a crappy movie, but i don't think you can make a fair comparison.

well 3/27 came faster than expected and watched not once but twice tonight. sorry but TOTAL LET DOWN. why?

1) most of the film took place in the palace, very little outdoor scenes. fish tank syndrome - which made it feel soap opera-ish.

2) schematics....the plot thickens & reveals itself almost immediately with practically zero character development in the beginning so it was really hard to care less about "who" was screwing "who" over. just overall lacking was sense of adventure, compassion, excitement & bits of humor that was in hero & HOFD. this one was way tooo serious for it's own good.

3) just the overall look and feel is too similar that of hero & HOFD. you know...grand colors, elaborate set design, butt load of extras running around, that echoing music score. too much recycled visuals and eye candy and not enough substance or change of direction. It's like hero or HOFD part 2 with different cast.

I will say this...the video transfer I thought was lazor razor sharp really nice. not soft or muted like HOFD. the 3 females in the room enjoyed the film quite much & could not get away from the screen which could be due to the soap opera-ish dynamics mentioned earlier so I guess not all is lost.