House of Flying Daggers did colour in nature; Hero colour via mankind (clothing, settings, etc). Curse of the Golden Flower is the gaudiness of the colour of wealth: all the rainbow in neon dazzle, more gold than the eye could take.

Gorgeous. More a movie for the eyes than the brain, but I’m okay with this – not that it was dumbed down in any way.

It’s worth a watch for the sheer spectacle. The hugeness of the whole production, from the massive, sumptious sets to the hundreds upon hundreds of extras and scores of matching costumes.

I also really loved the portrayal of imperial life: the scale of everything, the whole overblown everything -ness. The political machinations. The silly details like the absurb group announcing the hours.

Overall, though, the whole story is relatively shallow. The ending is also slightly unsatisfying, imo. And definitely not a ‘martial arts movie’ – the fight scenes weren’t great. But still worthy of a watch for the other reasons.