I have not seen a film for quite some time, most of my time being occupied with reading. Whilst taking a break from my reading, I switched on the TV. My eyes were immediately captivated by some stunning photography. A multi-million dollar movie by the famous Chinese director Zhang YiMou was being shown. It was a sort of Stephen Spielberg type of Hollywood spectacle. Never saw this film before because when it first came out, my friend Mr Chu, the owner of a Central CD and video shop, told me after he saw it that it was more froth than beer! But after seeing it, I cannot entirely agree with him.
The epic story was well told. You were kept in suspense as to what would happen next and there were missing links which did not make sense until the personal history of the main characters are gradually revealed. The story was supposed to be based on a famous Chinese drama 雷雨 but this one depicted the chicanery and the distortion of human nature by lust for political power or that of the human body in court settings: the dark struggles of wife against husband, husband against wife, son against father and father against son, and son against son. The story ended with the most ruthless surviving. He was the King.
To me, what makes the film worth seeing is the magnficence of its settings and its stunning visual effects: the opening scene of hundreds of lady courtiers getting ready in synchronized motion for the return of the king, set in the period of 5-dynasties 10 countries in Chinese history, the formality of court etiquette, the queen grimly sewing Chrysanthemums whilst drinking poison from a green goblet in highly stylized motions, the court officials announcing the passing of the hours along the corridors of power, the pomp and circumstance of the court, the stoicism with which the Queen took her poisonous medicine, the thousands of rebel army of the usurping son facing the equally impressive military formations of the defending soldiers,each moving in amazingly synchronized and almost mechanical action to the each of the battle cries of "defend", "hold", "attack" etc.. Everything exuded "form" but we realize, as the film unfolds, that "form" has degenerated into mere "formalism". In the end, the King won but only at the cost of the lives of all his children : they were either killed or committed suicide: his eldest son by his third, who could not stand the incest between his mother and his mother, the third son himself being pelted to death by the King, the second who killed himself although the King gave orders to his soldiers that he be spared because he failed in his attempt in taking over power from his father.
At the start of the film, we were shown the father and son locked in an apparently mortal martial arts combat after which the King suggested to his second son that he would confer power on him by making him his successor but that his son was not to grab power from him. That proved that the King already knew everything. But his son could not wait. At the last scene, the King awarded him his life but only on condition that he was to supervise the taking of the slow poison he ordered for his mother. His second son could not bear the extreme humiliation: it was a punishment worse than death. As he was a soldier, he chose death rather than a spineless existence. What makes the film most ironical is that the attempted coup took place on the 10th of the 10th lunar month, a day when according to the Confucian traditions, the nation, including the court and the royal family, was to celebrate the "the Double Sun" and the court,would celebrated in an elaborate ceremony the values Benevolence, Justice, Rites, , Wisdom, Trust, Loyalty, Filial Piety Fraternity! (仁義禮智信忠孝悌). On that fateful day, each one of the publicly celebrated virtues was brutally violated! Is that supposed to be a veiled criticism of the present regime? The King was forced into a political marriage with the queen of the former Liang dynastic and abandoned his wife, the mother of his eldest son, a weakling, who carried on unbekown to himself, an incestuous relation with his own sister by another father, the royal family doctor who prepared the poison for his own mother and openly an incestuous realtionship with his father's wife. I do not know whether the director wishes to emphasize the theme of power. No one could get it without fighting for it, without double talk and without deceit.
The acting was superb: Chow Yun Fat as the king whose mind was relentlessly focused on one thing and one thing only: power, Gong Li, who played the Queen, and whose life was dominated by lust and calculation for the coup by his son, Chow Kit Lun, who played the second son, whose life was dominated by military success and by ambition; Liu Hua who played the eldest son, torn between lust for his mother and his new love for his sister because he could never hope to equal his father in political power. To maintain a kind of psychological balance, he turned his attention from the throne to the bed. All of them were superb actors or actresses. Chow was really calm cool and calculated but did not overdo it.
The colour symbolism was also quite apparent: The film was an epic struggle between three predominat screen colors: yellow, red and black. The official color of the court was gold, the color of wealth and power and red, the color of blood and lust. Then the colour of the King was black: his secret forces, his counter espionage, the equivalent of the MI5, SAS or FBI or special task force. The color scheme of the greater part of the film was red, yellow and green. Is the director suggesting that behind all gold is bloodshed and that power can never been won without it. Beneath the gliiter of public gold, the worst in human nature is exposed. The movie ended by a scene of bloodshed within the outer court of the palace in which the ceremony for the worship of the ancestor continued with any signs of the bloodshed just a few hours ago quickly and efficiently replaced as if nothing had happened! Is that an allusion to the 4th June incident? The film ends with the King surveying the parade, sitting amongst the yellow flowers on a raised platform cooly and calmly surveying all his possessions, but, alas, all alone! Power can never be shared in China! the loneliness of power!
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