Posted on 01/24/2007 5:27:26 PM PST by wesley_windam-price
The movie "Curse of the Golden Flower" swept the Chinese music scene and brought in 170 million yuan, topping the box office in 2006. Most people came to see how the 360 million yuan (approximately US$ 45 million) was spent on the movie; they were curious to see how luxurious it could get. But how many people knew that this movie, heavily invested in by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and produced by Zhang Yimou, who has repeatedly followed the Party's lines, is another "masterpiece" that intends to brainwash people. The CCP's thoughts and directives filled the movie; it even exceeded "Hero," its brainwashing predecessor by the same director.
1. The 'Curse' represents the pursuit of corrupt and decrepit 'beauty' in China today
A movie must be visually attractive and cater to the society's sense of beauty. Currently the Chinese audience's biggest expectation of director Zhang is his use of colors. Besides its surface level use of colors, the "Curse" also added violence and erotic skin exposure to make up for its lack of depth in multiple facets. After many years of CCP rule the pursuit of material interest and lack of substance found within the CCP culture has permeated Chinese society to a frightening extent. "Curse" satisfies this pursuit perfectly, which is identical to the "culture of desires" that the CCP has always wanted to plant in people. This is why the Chinese audiences, having been "nursed" by the CCP, found no difficulty in accepting the movie.
The selling points of the "Curse" include the following:
Luxury . One robe of the emperor's cost over 1 million yuan. The golden "heavenly temple" cost about 5 million yuan. There are also countless expensive stain-glass fixtures, clothes, and props, in addition to famous actors and a large number of extras. During the entire filming process, media reports have covered these extravagances to capture the potential audience's attention.
Struggle . The essence of the CCP culture is class struggles and back-stabbing. Class struggles and back-stabbing within the royal court are found to run throughout the "Curse." The characters compete against and con each other, one more unscrupulous than the next. The relationships between the characters are complex, their fights merciless. There is no distinction between good and bad, right and wrong.
Incest . The "Curse" moved perversion and incest into a royal court setting. The main story line is an imitation of the theatrical classic "Thunder Storm."
Violence . The CCP's culture of class struggles promotes utter and unabashed violence. Chinese people, who have a "fine" tradition of revolution through violence and manipulated patriotism, are used to violence and not disturbed by it. The CCP culture of class struggles, which is based on violence, has a tendency to abuse violence. Whoever has the power to kill has the right of speech. Training the populace to accept, or even enjoy, the display of violence is a powerful weapon of the CCP in extending the culture of struggles and intensifying the mentality of competitiveness.
2. Debase history, disgrace traditions, and exacerbate moral decline
Through the "Curse," the CCP wants to tell the people that the human history is one of class struggles. Besides the usual struggle between the haves and the have-nots, even within a family, conflicts are resolved through violence. There is no peace anywhere—violence is omnipresent.
a. No emperor, no public servants, no father, no son.
The "Curse" showed the hatred between father and son, and husband and wife; and incest between mother and stepson, and brother and sister. They were designed to show that all the traditional values of kindness, faith, respect, and filial piety are of no use. One can't find any of these values in the characters.
b. No rules or laws.
The movie portrays the emperors of the past as regarding their own will as the law, and that the fist controlled everything. There was no rule or regulation in society. Actually what was shown in the movie is similar to the power struggle between the Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao factions. Which side wins does not really matter to the ordinary people, because the two factions only represent the interest of their own group.
c. Massive killing.
Although the "Curse" was a martial arts movie, there was no such massive killing in martial arts movies before. Zhang Yimou has truly reached the extreme in portraying brutality.
3. Implications to the audience
Feng Xiaogang, a famous Chinese producer, once said Zhang's movies are "an extravaganza of colors and excessive emotions." If Zhang was truly dedicated to the study of colors and being expressive, it would be respectable. However, what Zhang really aimed at was matching the CCP's main tunes.
How does the CCP's policies relate to Zhang? Actually, as early as the 1992 movie "The Story of Qiu Ju," Zhang had shown signs of leaning towards the CCP. Since then, he has consistently followed the CCP's directions, including in the movie "Hero." In the minds of most Chinese people, the CCP's directions and awards from foreign film festivals seem contradictory. Actually, Zhang is so talented that he can both cater to the government and the audience, and win admiration at international film festivals. It would not be surprising if Zhang's movie won an Academy Award one day. It would only show Zhang's artistic maturity and the victory of the CCP culture.
But if the innocent Chinese movie-goers think that the huge amount of money the CCP provided for Zhang's latest movie was for him to win an Oscar, they were wrong. The CCP needs to use art to conduct another round of comprehensive brainwashing. It needs to use the movie to "educate" people. Although Zhang and the other investors repeatedly said the function of movies is not to educate but to entertain, Zhang seems to be quite adept at imbedding leading messages in his movies, changing people in a subtle way. Let's take a look at the messages imbedded in the "Curse."
a. The "art" of power struggles requires one to appear virtuous and moral yet be unscrupulous inside. The emperor is the one with the highest such skills. He killed his first wife, poisoned his second wife, and whipped and killed his son without feeling any guilt or remorse. In order to marry the princess of the Liang State, he sided with the powerful and acted the part of a sycophant. After he became emperor, however, he pretended to still have deep feelings for his first wife, creating an image that he is a man who does not forget his past easily. He harbored hatred against his wife, yet pretended to be fond of her in front of others.
2. There are no true relationships and emotions. The so-called emotions were just affairs and incest. The bitterness and vicious schemes between husband and wife, and father and son, are similar to the tragedies that happened during the Cultural Revolution. All of the people acted according to their own self-interest and lust. There was no consideration for the state or the common good. How is this different from the Chinese nation under the CCP's rule? The movie implies to the audience that such vicious struggles have always existed and are natural.
3. Whoever controls the gun controls the government. The CCP has worshipped the principle of "survival of the fittest." It believes that morality is only a rule of the game for governing economics. The emperor talks about the "rule" several times, saying "the rule cannot be altered," along the same line as the CCP's "stability trumps everything." The emperor also said, "Heaven, earth, and everything, it's only yours if I give it to you. If I don't give you, you cannot fight for it." This is no different from the CCP's principles that the country must be ruled by the CCP; any dissenting speech or action would result in severe punishment.
4. Power equals violence. The solution to violence is violence. The emperor showed his violent tendencies twice in the "Curse": when he was in a duel with Prince Jai, and when he killed the third prince. It shows that the CCP is capable of enough violence to suppress any imaginary opposing power. This is an explicit taunt, which actually also reveals the strong sense of crisis and anxiety of the CCP. After watching the "Curse," the audience is expected to come to several conclusions: There is no loyalty or justice in the world, only lies and hatred; when one power needs to overtake another, violence is a necessity; and if one doesn't have enough power to annihilate the enemy, one should seek surface "harmony" with the enemy.
the "Curse" also added violence and erotic skin exposure to make up for its lack of depth in multiple facets
Violence AND erotic skin exposure!??! those are my two favorite things.
Zhao Yijing, meet BatJack Thompson.
BatJack Thompson, meet Zhao Yijing.
I don't see why this matters anymore, in China you can buy pirated movies from around the world for about US$2 dollars a piece, or less.
When has the mass media not been at the beck and call of the ruling elite? For only fleeting moments in world history.
I saw this movie last week. It is simply jaw-dropping in its splendor of colors and special effects. As for erotic skin exposure, that was a bunch of women in push-up bustiers. I didn't really think the movie was all that violent until the last 30 minutes.
I'z been propagandized!
My friend saw it and said it looked good but wasn't that great of a film. Ill probably pass , but I did notice the main female star did seem be ...um..popping out of her top.
Sounds like they're talking about hollywood. Hey, skin, violence, pushing the commie party line. I see no difference.
Geez, what over-reaction!
You could say the same things about any Hollywood epic, Shakespeare play, and the stuff on HBO.
Nothing's going to keep me from seeing the great actor Chow Yun Fat!
http://www.sonyclassics.com/curseofthegoldenflower/
I doubt I'll go see it, ...maybe on video. I actually found the same director's move "Hero" pretty worrying. In it the so-called hero was prepared to assassinate the regional king who had conquered a couple of other local principalities. But after the king explained that his was was the only method to bring peace, the hero didn't follow through. My paranoid side implies that's the reasoning the Chinese would use to justify an armed conflict over Taiwan, Japan,...the world.
Much ado about absolutely nothing. Epoch Times, where this review comes from is the house web site for the Falun Gung movement. FLG is heavily persecuted by the PRC.
This review is just as much a 'propaganda' piece as the movie it refers to.
At least $1 million of the budget was spent inflating the breasts of the lead character.
It's not a chinese communist bankrolled kungfu epic without japanese being the bad guys and white westerners trying to destroy their culture.
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