Curse of the Golden Flower (Zhang Yimou, 2006, 35mm, 114 mins)
20th anniversary screening! Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li star in this lavish wuxia tragedy set in a Tang Dynasty palace, where emperor plots against empress and sons navigate loyalties and desires. Through opulent costumes, heartstopping choreography, and Zhang’s signature use of color, the film “achieves a kind of operatic delirium, opening the floodgates of image and melodrama” (Jeannette Catsoulis). In Mandarin with English subtitles. Introduction by Denise Leidy. 35mm print from the Yale Film Archive.
