curse of the golden flower

why not "curse of the chrysanthemums" when tt's obviously the flower?

perhaps "golden flower" has more grandeur to it.

went to catch tt with bin and jerms. i felt it's all too excessive. the overflowing boobies got me worried for them everytime the actresses run. overdone. the bloodshed and huge body count. exhaustive. gong li's screen time. too lingering.

but i understand why now. to be excessive is to draw emphasise on the decadence.

this is the ultimate family tragedy. while i thought Gongli had no breakthrough, she was still stunning as the heart and soul of the film. somehow i thought her reteamin with Zhang Yimou after the longest time would produce the performance of her life that wld catapult her into Hollywood stratosphere. but too often the camera lingers on her (thou it loves her to death). it's the usual repressed dominatrix with a tragic past.

Jay. his first scene in the film drew some giggles and i heard a "crap" somewhere. i thought the moustach was very un-Tang dynasty. and i thought the ending wld be darker if only he hadnt done wat he did. and i tink he's in this film for a reason. now he has a reason to go to Hollywood.

and i cant help but compare the theme song. i think no theme song is more befittingly used in Zhang's movie except Faye's Hero. bias? i tink not. it's a gravita-filled tune tt matches the film.

and somehow i cant help but compare it with The Banquet also. both had the same empress-wana-overthrow-emperor/ suppressed-feminist theme. while Curse had more charismatic actors, Banquet felt more poetic. and Curse is less poetic than Hero or Flying Daggers. which is a waste.

all in all, i tink ST Life!'s 4.5 star is overrated, though i didnt see all the political undertone it mentioned. and 8Days' 2 star is overtly miserly. it makes me wana watch Crouching Tiger all over again just to have tt organic feel back.

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it's been a long day. i love waking up early cos it doesnt feel like i've wasted alot of time. supposed to jog with echo+Fairoz but the track was closed, and they did gym but i didnt wana do it, so i went for a swim. cold cold water. but it was nice. went to meet Quin after and shopped for er-hem's present but we ended up gettin xmas presents for assorted ppl instead haha. den we went my fav hangout:FullHouse @ Far East. chippy damn long queue, but i'm glad cos we tried the egg-wrapped carrot cake and mango ice, which is damnnn good itellyou. like whoa!


and Shawn YTL, i wana tell u this:

i saw jeff.

it was totally unexpected itellu. i was jus shopping ard at Lido topshop when all of a sudden i saw him sitting down between luggages, smacking flies(not literally). yar like how lucky can i get rite haha. but he seems to be doin well. no black shirt thou. and no colleagues ard. yar. laters!

den i went for dinner with bin + jerms. had popular chicken rice tt i didnt know, and starbucks coffee, and movie. yarrrr...this is how i spend my off day. i need to do this more often haha.