Once upon a time, in a small village surrounded by dense forests, there lived a young woman named Mei. Mei was known for her extraordinary beauty, with striking golden hair that shimmered in the sunlight. She had captured the hearts of many suitors in the village, but she was not interested in their advances. One day, a mysterious traveler arrived in the village. His name was Li, and he possessed a charm and charisma that drew everyone towards him. When Li caught a glimpse of Mei, he was immediately captivated by her beauty.
After the battle, the courtyard is swiftly cleaned up as if the night's event had never transpired. The Emperor reveals to the Empress it was Prince Wan who informed him of their plot. The Empress simply states she had a feeling he would. The Emperor says that she has truly lost her mind to have continued such a redundant rebellion. Prince Jai is captured and the lords who assisted the Empress in building her army are executed. The Emperor brings his wife and bloodied son to the terrace for all the subjects to see. Despite having two sons dead, a mad wife, and a traitorous rebel for a son, the Emperor calmly reminds Jai that he was not to take what was not given to him. Jai acknowledges that he knew he would not win the battle, but his efforts were not for the throne; they were for his mother.
The Emperor visits Wan soon after and comforts him, revealing that he was aware of his son s affair with the Empress, but is confident that it was she who seduced him. Just as the festival is beginning, and the royal family is assembled together, Shi and Chan enter the palace and Shi confronts the Emperor, correctly suspicious that it was he who sent the assassins.
When Li caught a glimpse of Mei, he was immediately captivated by her beauty. He knew he had to make her his own, no matter the cost. Li approached Mei with words of flattery and promises of a life filled with riches and happiness.
Plot
During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.
A Chinese emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) returns to his palace to discover his wife (Gong Li) is having an affair with her stepson, the Crown Prince (Jay Chou), who is himself actually in love with the Imperial doctor's daughter. In the lead up to the Chong Yang festival, an army of golden-plated warriors lay siege to the palace.
China, Later Tang Dynasty, 10th Century. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou). His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress (Gong Li), this seems disingenuous. For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows worried over the Empress's health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. Could she be headed down an ominous path? The Emperor harbors equally clandestine plans; the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) is the only one privy to his machinations. When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor's family from the Palace to a remote area. While they are en route, mysterious assassins attack them. Chan and her mother, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin) are forced back to the palace. Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of dark surprises. Amid the glamour and grandeur of the festival, ugly secrets are revealed. As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace. Who is behind this brutal rebellion? Where do Prince Jai's loyalties lie? Between love and desire, is there a final winner? Against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace. —Sony Pictures Classics
Synopsis
The plot is based on Cao Yu's 1934 play Thunderstorm ( pinyin: Lei Yu), but is set in the royal court of the later Tang dynasty in ancient China.
On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden chrysanthemum flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) returns from his various military campaigns with his second son and general, Prince Jai (Jay Chou). It is hinted during their brief, but intense, sparring session that Jai has grown resentful of his father and his controlling ways. However, the Emperor warns his son of his own past mistakes and tells him not to take by force what is not given to him. The pretext of the Emperor's return is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress (Gong Li), this seems disingenuous. For three years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Ye Liu), her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. However, Prince Wan no longer finds himself reciprocal of her advances and, feeling trapped, dreams of exploring the world outside the palace with his secret lover, Jiang Chan (link=Man Li), the Imperial Doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, Prince Jai, a faithful son to his mother, grows curious and then worried over the Empress's health and her abnormal obsession with golden chrysanthemums. Wan acknowledges Jai's concerns, but the younger son, Yu seems oblivious to the matter and does not question it further.
The family reunites within the chrysanthemum terrace where Wan's request to explore the frontier is denied by the emperor, along with Yu's request to command the imperial guard. It is decided that Jai will take the latter responsibility. No one cares or really sees the youngest son Yu, and he is quietly dismissed. It is then revealed that the Empress had failed to take her full dose of medicine for her anemia at the required hour. The Emperor commands she take the full dose. The Empress refuses, knowing that something is not right. The Emperor then commands his sons to make her take her dose, at which point she begrudgingly acquiesces. At this point, Jai also begins to sense that something is afoot.
For the past ten days, the Imperial Physician, Jiang Yiru (Dahong Ni) and his daughter Jiang Chan have been tasked by the Emperor to secretly add small amounts of poison into the Empress' medicine that she takes one dose of every two hours. The result would leave the Empress in an eventual state of insanity. Having discovered this plot thanks to the investigations of a hired woman-in-black, the Empress concludes that her husband has grown tired of her strong and independent character. The Empress continues to embroider golden chrysanthemums and summons her son, Prince Jai. She reveals his father's plot against her and asks for his participation in her own plan for revenge. Jai hesitates, feeling conflicted between his love for his mother and his loyalty to his father. He says that it would be difficult for him to confront the Emperor with sword and armor, but after seeing his mother take a poisoned dose before him, he agrees.
Meanwhile, the woman-in-black is captured by Prince Wan and taken to the Emperor. She is revealed to be she Jiang Shi (Jin Chen), Jiang Yiru's wife and Jiang Chan's mother. The Emperor relinquishes custody of Shi to her husband and relocates the doctor's family to a remote area outside the palace. Before they leave, Prince Wan approaches Chan who provides him with information that leads him to suspect the Empress' plans. He rushes back inside the palace and confronts the Empress, claiming that everyone will blame him should there be rebellion. The Empress, already in the throes of madness, bluntly claims she only wants Wan to die so she can continue her plans. In a panic, Wan stabs himself and the Empress is immediately contrite. She places the prince under care. The Emperor visits Wan soon after and comforts him, revealing that he was aware of his son's affair with the Empress, but is confident that it was she who seduced him.
As the doctor's family is en route to their relocation in the mountains, they are attacked by mysterious assassins-in-black and Jiang Yiru is killed. Chan and her mother escape back to the palace. Just as the festival is beginning, and the royal family is assembled together, Shi and Chan enter the palace and Shi confronts the Emperor, correctly suspicious that it was he who sent the assassins. Enraged, Shi mocks the Emperor, recalling a previous assassination attempt from which she escaped. It was the Imperial Doctor who found her and nursed her back to health, after which they were wed. Feeding upon the drama, the Empress then reveals to everyone that Shi was the Emperor's former lover, giving him reason to kill her after his marriage to the Empress, and is the birth mother of Prince Wan. This revelation sends ripples of shock through the family, especially Prince Wan and Chan who realize they are half siblings. Distraught and crazed, Chan runs screaming from the palace, her mother chasing close behind. Both are killed by the assassins initially sent after them.
After the turmoil raised, and to everyone's astonishment, the young Prince Yu abruptly kills Prince Wan, and attempts to oblige the Emperor to abdicate the throne to him. He angrily reveals that he also learned of the Empress's plot including Prince Jai. Feeling that no one ever cared about him, he had to act in order to gain himself the throne. A small rebellious team of soldiers assembles behind him, but the Emperor's assassins easily eliminate Prince Yu's rebel force. The Emperor then lashes Yu to death. The Empress, caught in the clutches of madness, does not seem to notice the violence and walks off, consumed in her plan.
As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, ten thousand golden-armored warriors, all wearing the embroidered flowers the Empress made, charge the palace led by Prince Jai. The Imperial banner set out by the Emperor, which provides a direct warning against Jai's advances, is promptly ignored. As they charge forward, the Emperor's personal assassins arrive to stop them. Although Prince Jai's men take many casualties, they manage to eliminate all of the assassins and move forward. As the golden-armored army marches into the Imperial Square, they are boxed in by moving walls operated by the Emperor's men, the Silver Armours. Prince Jai orders the army to charge forth, but they are cut down by thousands of arrows. Against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Courtyard. Despite catastrophic losses, Prince Jai continues to fight in honor of his mother, but it is not until the Empress nods that the Prince surrenders. Afterwards, the survivors of the golden-armored army are gathered, bound, and executed on the Emperor's orders.
After the battle, the courtyard is swiftly cleaned up as if the night's event had never transpired. The Emperor reveals to the Empress it was Prince Wan who informed him of their plot. The Empress simply states she had a feeling he would. The Emperor says that she has truly lost her mind to have continued such a redundant rebellion. Prince Jai is captured and the lords who assisted the Empress in building her army are executed. The Emperor brings his wife and bloodied son to the terrace for all the subjects to see. Despite having two sons dead, a mad wife, and a traitorous rebel for a son, the Emperor calmly reminds Jai that he was not to take what was not given to him. Jai acknowledges that he knew he would not win the battle, but his efforts were not for the throne; they were for his mother.
Silently furious that his son's loyalty was usurped by his contemptuous wife, he orders Prince Jai to administer the Empress' poisoned medicine to her, in exchange for sparing his life. Prince Jai apologizes to his mother for his failure. The two share a tearful embrace and Jai kills himself by slitting his own throat. As his blood spills, droplets fall into the Empress' medicine. The Emperor pauses reaching for his food, silently shocked that his son would rather take his own life than betray his mother, but no words escape him. The Empress shakes, gripped by her madness and despair at losing everything she loved, appalled by the medicine which now contains her son's blood, and enraged at the fierce control maintained by her husband. She lets out a frantic shriek and slaps the plate holding the medicine out of the servant's hands. The liquid falls upon the wood of the dais which begins to rapidly dissolve from the medicine's acidity. It eats away at the engraved chrysanthemum, now symbolizing the foul corruption and madness that the festival has brought upon the city.
As the doctor's family is en route to their relocation in the mountains, they are attacked by mysterious assassins-in-black and Jiang Yiru is killed. Chan and her mother escape back to the palace. Just as the festival is beginning, and the royal family is assembled together, Shi and Chan enter the palace and Shi confronts the Emperor, correctly suspicious that it was he who sent the assassins. Enraged, Shi mocks the Emperor, recalling a previous assassination attempt from which she escaped. It was the Imperial Doctor who found her and nursed her back to health, after which they were wed. Feeding upon the drama, the Empress then reveals to everyone that Shi was the Emperor's former lover, giving him reason to kill her after his marriage to the Empress, and is the birth mother of Prince Wan. This revelation sends ripples of shock through the family, especially Prince Wan and Chan who realize they are half siblings. Distraught and crazed, Chan runs screaming from the palace, her mother chasing close behind. Both are killed by the assassins initially sent after them.
Intrigued by his charm, Mei cautiously agreed to marry him. Little did she know that Li had a dark secret - he was cursed by a powerful sorceress. The sorceress, jealous of Li's charm and good looks, had cursed him with eternal loneliness. Anyone who fell in love with Li would suffer a tragic fate. On their wedding night, the sorceress appeared before Mei and revealed the truth about Li's curse. Heartbroken and desperate, Mei pleaded with the sorceress to lift the curse. The sorceress, amused by Mei's devotion, offered her a single chance to break the curse. Mei would have to embark on a perilous journey to find the rare Golden Flower, a flower that bloomed only once every hundred years. If Mei could find the flower and bring it back before sunrise, she could save Li from his curse. Determined to save her husband and their love, Mei set out on her quest. She traversed treacherous mountains, crossed dangerous rivers, and endured countless challenges along the way. Finally, after days of searching, Mei found the legendary Golden Flower. With the precious flower in her hands, Mei raced back to the village. The sun was beginning to rise, and Mei knew she had little time left. Exhausted and battered, she reached the village just as the first rays of sunlight began to cast their golden glow. Mei desperately pleaded with the sorceress to honor her promise. The sorceress, true to her word, lifted the curse from Li just as the sun fully rose. Li and Mei embraced as the curse was finally broken, and their love triumphed over the sorceress's evil spell. From that day on, Mei and Li lived a life filled with joy and happiness. The village celebrated their love and the bravery of Mei's journey to break the curse. The Golden Flower became a symbol of true love and the power of determination. And so, the legend of Mei and Li's Golden Flower curse story lived on, reminding everyone that love can conquer even the darkest of curses..
Reviews for "The Golden Flower Curse: A Story of Passion and Betrayal"
1. John - 1/5 stars - I found "Golden Flower Curse Story" to be incredibly slow-paced and lacking any real depth. The characters were one-dimensional and the storyline felt predictable and uninteresting. The writing style also left much to be desired, as it felt clumsy and confusing at times. Overall, I was quite disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to others looking for a captivating and engaging read.
2. Linda - 2/5 stars - As a fan of fantasy novels, I was excited to dive into "Golden Flower Curse Story," but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The world-building was lacking, with minimal descriptions that left me feeling disconnected from the setting. Additionally, the dialogue felt forced and unnatural, making it difficult to connect with the characters. The pacing was inconsistent, with long stretches of dull moments and abrupt jumps in the storyline. While the concept had potential, the execution left much to be desired.
3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I found "Golden Flower Curse Story" to be a rather tedious read. The story dragged on with unnecessary details and subplots that detracted from the main narrative. The characters lacked development and were difficult to relate to or root for. The writing style was overly descriptive to the point of being overwhelming, making it hard to immerse myself in the story. Overall, I struggled to stay engaged and invested in this book, and it ultimately left me unsatisfied.
4. Mark - 3/5 stars - "Golden Flower Curse Story" had an intriguing premise, but the execution fell flat for me. The plot was promising, but it was hindered by pacing issues and a lack of clear direction. The writing style was decent, but certain sections felt repetitive and unnecessary. While there were some interesting moments and ideas, they weren't enough to fully capture my attention. Overall, the book had potential, but it needed more refinement to make it truly engaging and enjoyable.
5. Emily - 2/5 stars - "Golden Flower Curse Story" was not what I expected. The characters lacked depth and often made unrealistic decisions. The romance felt forced and lacked chemistry. The world-building was barely touched upon, and I found it difficult to visualize the setting. The plot was predictable, and the twists lacked impact. Overall, I was left feeling underwhelmed and would not recommend this book to others.