Curse of the Golden Flower is a rarity at RonenRecommends.com in being awarded a single star rating: it is so bad that its almost good… It is an over the top US$45 million budget period piece, being at the time of its release the most expensive film to ever be produced in China. The plot is Shakespearean in nature, depicting family politics in an Imperial court of ancient China. The film, directed by the very accomplished Zhang Yimou, is melodramatic beyond belief; not only do we need to suffer through over-acting, but extra dramatic music is added in the background making the film almost comical. That a director like Zhang Yimou will get himself involved in such a project, he must have been either paid a lot of money or forced to do this under his country’s government… The only thing I took from this film is that then (ancient past) as today, the governors of this large nation know how to quickly terminate revolutions and then move promptly to erase any signs of bloodshed as if it never took place.