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Zhang Yimou's latest epic spectacle is one of the most extravagant and strange films I've seen in some time, all the more so because it fuses the intimate, claustrophobic approach of his earlier work (especially Raise The Red Lantern) with elements of the martial arts spectacle that has come to define his later output. It manages to sustain a fever pitch of deranged brilliance for much of its running time; yet I still find it hard to recommend, simply because it goes so operatically over-the-top in its final half hour, and loses much of the emotional power it had built up to that point.

The film takes place in China in the 10th century, just prior to the annual Chrysanthemum Festival. The Empress (played masterfully by Yimou's perennial star, Gong Li) is in a fragile state of health, and has to take a series of medicines prepared by the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) and his daughter Chan (Li Man), every hour. It also turns out she's been having an affair with her stepson, the Crown Prince (Liu Ye), and is consumed with jealousy because of his fascination with Chan. After an elaborate reception for the Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) is cancelled because he decided not to come straight home, he arrives the next day with another of the princes, Jai (Jay Chou), with plans to make him the new Crown Prince after the festival. Meanwhile, we learn that the Emperor has secretly added a black fungus to the recipe for the Empress's medicine, in order to drive her slowly mad and eventually kill her. Why he does this is never really clarified, but it drives the rest of the plot, as the Empress learns of his machinations and plots revenge, while the other family relationships grown increasingly tangled.

Most of the film focuses on the convoluted story as opposed to action, with a handful of exceptions-- most impressively a swordfight between the Emperor and Jai that serves as a test of the latter's skills prior to his return to the Palace. And since the majority of the action is set in one place, the depiction of court ritual and the cloistered world of the royal family bears some odd similarities to Marie Antoinette, only without most of the youthful frivolity and the new-wave soundtrack. But Yimou's purpose, of course, is different-- this constricted world serves only to deepen the Empress's madness and to complicate her relationships with her sons, who have wildly differing reactions to the situation (I just remembered there's a third prince I didn't even mention, probably because we don't see much of him and he only becomes important at the very end). All of the actors do a fine job, but Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat are the clear standouts; she portrays the Empress as a convincingly fragile, but still resolute and determined, human being, while he gives his casually evil character a strange sort of charm.

So the acting's great, and the visuals are astonishing-- Yimou's done large-scale pageantry before, but never quite on this scale, with hundreds of courtiers and armored soldiers and lavishly colored palace interiors and courtyards filled with thousands of chrysanthemums. What's not to like? For me, the film's main problem comes in the action-heavy final movement (approximately the last half hour, though it may have actually been longer), dominated by an admittedly spectacular battle featuring dozens of ninja-like assassins who throw scythes, huge opposing armies clad in gold and silver armor, and the deaths of a whole lot of characters. It's impressive to look at, but it's so relentless and unyielding that I felt brutalized and battered at the end, much like the character the Emperor beats to a bloody pulp with his belt. After a while, there was so much carnage and death it became tiresome to watch; and while there's one major moment of emotional impact in this section, it mostly dispenses with all the previous character development and just gets more and more absurdly outsized and grandiose until the end. I still enjoyed the film overall, but the last stretches tempered my enthusiasm significantly.

Overall rating: 7.5/10.