Curse of the Golden Flower (Simplified Chinese: 满城尽带黄金甲; Traditional Chinese: 滿城盡帶黃金甲; Hanyu Pinyin: Mǎnchéng Jìndài Huángjīnjiǎ), also known literally as When Golden Armor Covers The Entire City, is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 Chinese historical drama film directed by Zhang Yimou.

Plot:

The plot is based on Cao Yu's 1934 drama Thunderstorm (pinyin: Lei Yu), but is set in the imperial court of the Later Tang Dynasty in the year 922, which was during the turbulent Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Emperor Ping is a man of humble origins and strong ambition, having risen to the throne from the lowly rank of captain. He abandoned his first wife to marry the Princess of Liang, who is now his Empress Phoenix. The Emperor does not love his second wife or her often sour mood; he blames the latter on an illness, for which he has forced her to take medicine of his own concoction every two hours for the past ten years. Empress Phoenix has been outwardly obedient throughout the marriage and her husband's treatment, but has grown suspicious of the medicine in the recent span of ten days. Her submissiveness also conceals the fact that she and Crown Prince Wan, the Emperor's son from his previous wife, have engaged in an illicit affair for three years. The status quo is broken, however, when Wan reveals to the Empress his guilt about the affair and then ends it against her wishes. Part of his motivation is a second secret relationship, held with Jiang Chan the daughter of the Imperial Doctor. Wan's overriding desire is to escape the palace, which he has never left, and thereby see the outside world with Chan.

Prince Jai, the middle son and eldest son of the Empress, has been leading the Emperor Ping's army at the kingdom's borders for three years. The palace has prepared a massive welcoming ceremony for the returning prince on the eve of the Chrysanthemum Festival, but the Emperor cancels them at the last moment to meet his son at a nearby inn where Jai has been instructed to wait. There, the Emperor duels his son as an act of dominance, after which he warns Jai never to repeat a previous, unspecified mistake, emphasizing that everything Jai receives comes by the will of the Emperor and attempting to take anything from the Emperor by force is doomed to failure. Jai then returns to the palace and visits with his mother, who is feverishly embroidering chrysanthemums for the upcoming festival. While she is embroidering she is struck still for a moment, possibly in pain, and collapses. She recovers quickly but Jai begins to worry about her.

Meanwhile, the Emperor meets with the Imperial Doctor, who confirms that he (the Doctor) has been serving the Empress a special poison along with her medicine for the last ten days. The poisoning is apparently a scheme of the Emperor, intended for unspecified reasons to cause the Empress to lose her mind within two months. Not coincidentally, the Empress is increasingly more suspicious of the medicine due to the change in its taste and the recent onset of pain. Because of this, she chooses to leave the last swallow of her next dose. At a family gathering later that day, the Emperor indicates that he knows of her disobedience, and then insists that she finish the remaining medicine. The Empress refuses until the Emperor coerces his sons into begging her to comply.

Later on, a woman in assassin's garb informs the Empress that the medicine does in fact contain poison, as she had come to suspect. The woman refuses payment, saying she has her own reasons to hate the Emperor. Then she begins to leave, but becomes distracted by Wan, who has her seized and brought to the Emperor. The Emperor recognizes her as his first wife, the mother of Wan, who without his knowledge had escaped imprisonment and execution twenty-five years earlier. She is now the wife of the Imperial Doctor and the mother of Chan, who does not know of her mother's past. The Emperor promises to repay her for the wrongs he has done to her and promotes her husband (the Doctor) to governor of another city.

After the Doctor leaves with his family the Empress and Jai meet and she tells him she is being poisoned and asks for his help against his father. He first refuses, then submits when he watches his mother willingly drink the poisoned medicine. Later the Empress summons Wan to her chambers and shows him a robe she has made for him to wear at the festival, emphasizing the special chrysanthemum she has embroidered on it. Wan becomes suspicious and refuses to wear the robe, they scuffle over it until they end up on the floor together in an almost intimate moment. Seconds later Wan snaps out of it and rushes from the room, riding from the palace to the inn where the Doctor and his family are staying. When he is at the inn with Chan, Wan discovers that the Empress has had her eunuch embroider and deliver ten thousand chrysanthemum scarves to General Wu of their own army. Wan immediately gets suspicious and rushes to return to the palace, causing himself to be discovered by Chan's mother, who demands vehemently and without explanation that Wan leave immediately, which he does without a word. The Doctor then sits down for a heart-to-heart talk with his wife and Chan takes the opportunity to pursue Prince Wan, whom she believes is riding into great danger.

Wan returns to the palace and confronts the Empress. She is hurt and jealous of his relationship with Chan, plus his refusal to wear the robe she made for him, so when he becomes angry and says that her plot would cause him to be killed, she agrees, telling him she wants him to die. At that Wan grabs a knife and stabs himself, but not fatally. Later, when he is recovering, the Emperor visits him and tells him he has known for years about the relationship between Wan and the Empress. The Emperor then tells Wan he does not blame him for the betrayal, whereupon Wan divulges the Empress' plot.

Meanwhile, before the heart-to-heart talk can begin between the Doctor and his wife, the Emperor's black-clad assassins descend on the inn, armed with sickle-like swords and long ropes attached to grapples to slaughter all the occupants. They kill the Doctor, but red-clad soldiers loyal to the Empress hold them off and allow his wife to escape. She flees to the palace, where the Chrysanthemum Festival is about to begin, and in turn is revealed by the Empress to the royal family and Chan as the Emperor's first wife, Wan's mother. Chan is driven mad by the realisation that her lover Wan is in fact her half-brother, and thus flees screaming into the courtyard with her mother in pursuit. The Emperor's assassins reappear and kill Chan and her mother, but at the same time are slain by the mother in mad grief. Then a large army of gold-armored soldiers swarms through the front gates, killing imperial bodyguards and courtiers as they approach; their scarves are soon shown to bear chrysanthemum emblems. With Jai emerging in his own golden armor to take point, the army advances toward the courtyard.

In the palace, all are surprised when Yu, the youngest prince, stabs Wan in the back. Yu screams that he has witnessed and is disgusted by the plottings of his family, and has concluded that he must take the throne. Backed by several soldiers, he orders his father to abdicate. However, the Emperor's assassins descend from the rafters to kill the soldiers, after which the Emperor uses his heavy golden belt to pulverize Yu.

Outside, Jai leads the golden soldiers into the courtyard, cutting down the imperial flag as a symbol to go forward. As the golden soldiers trample the chrysanthemum pots in the courtyard, an even larger army clad in silver shows up and fortifies the palace with spears, bows, and a massive mobile wall. They slaughter all 10,000 golden soldiers, but are ordered to spare Jai. He fights a determined, solitary battle against the entire army for some time before the teary-eyed Empress nods to him and he submits. Afterwards, a horde of servants clears away the bodies and restores the decorations, including the thousands of pots of chrysanthemums, with mechanical precision. The festival begins as if nothing had happened.

The Empress and a blood-soaked Jai are brought to the festival table where the Emperor sits. The Emperor reveals that he knew of the plot against him, since Wan had informed him of it; assuming that the coup was a bid for the throne, the Emperor reminds Jai of his previous warning to not take what has not been given to him. With that in mind, he also reveals an earlier decision to replace Wan with Jai as Crown Prince, thereby emphasizing the superfluous nature of Jai's act. Jai admits that he knew that his fight was futile, but corrects the Emperor's assumption by stating that he did it all for his mother, not the throne. In response, the Emperor says that he will spare Jai the penalty for princely rebellion of being ripped apart by five horses if he will personally serve his mother her poisoned medicine from now on. Jai kneels before his mother and apologizes, then kills himself with a sword. Blood splatters the contents of the table as the Emperor bends to take a morsel of food. He pauses without expression. The Empress, truly driven mad now, screams as she flings the medicine into the center of the table. The poisonous contents of the cup turns the giant golden chrysanthemum on the table black as the movie ends.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Traditional Chinese: 臥虎藏龍; Simplified Chinese: 卧虎藏龙; Hanyu Pinyin: Wòhǔ Cánglóng) is a Chinese-language wuxia (chivalric and martial arts) film released in 2000. A China-Hong Kong-Taiwan-United States co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and features an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen. The movie was based on the fourth novel in a pentalogy, known in China as the Crane-Iron Pentalogy, by Wang Dulu. The martial arts and action sequences were choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping.

Plot:

The fictional story is set in the historic Qing Dynasty in China. The approximate date of the story is during the 43rd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (i.e. 1778).[3]

The story follows two martial arts warriors, Li Mu-bai (Chinese: 李慕白; Hanyu Pinyin: Lǐ Mùbái) (Chow Yun-Fat) and Yu Shu-lien (Chinese: 余秀蓮; Hanyu Pinyin: Yú Xiùlián) (Michelle Yeoh). Li Mu-bai returns one day from deep meditation to surrender the Green Destiny, a legendary sword that has remained in his use for many years. He requests Yu Shu-lien, a close friend who inherits a house of armed escorts from her father, to transport it to Sir Te, a long-term friend, for safekeeping in Beijing.

Mu-bai and Shu-lien are attracted to one another but abstain from a relationship, constrained by commonplace propriety because of Shu-lien's betrothal years ago to Mu-bai's "Brother in Oath," who has since died.

Once in Beijing, Shu-lien delivers the sword to Sir Te and meets Jen (Chinese: 玉嬌龍; Hanyu Pinyin: Yù Jiāolóng) (Zhang Ziyi). Jen is the daughter of Governor Yu, who is a Manchu aristocrat visiting Sir Te on business. Jen is destined for an arranged marriage, yet yearns for adventure instead of a life as a court wife. Jen is fascinated by Shu-lien's background as a fighter and develops an attachment to her.

One night, a masked thief sneaks onto Sir Te's property and steals the Green Destiny. The thief is pursued by guards and by Shu-lien, across rooftops, alleys, walls, houses and various obstacles within the enclosed estate of Sir Te. Amidst combat, and much to Shu-lien's surprise, she discovers that the thief is well-versed in martial arts and has apparently mastered the Wudang school of martial arts, like Mu -bai.

The thief turns out to be Jen. To retrieve the sword, Mu-bai fights with Jen on several occasions, but he refuses to kill her because he sees her potential and wants to train her as his apprentice. Jen also fights with Shu-lien, who spares her out of feelings of love and friendship.

Jen, headstrong in her powers and emboldened by her forbidden love to the desert bandit Lo (played by Chang Chen), consequently does not accept Mu-bai as master, nor Shu-lien as a friend. Jen stands at crossroads of her life choices. She must choose either life as a court official's wife or life with Lo. She also considers a rebellious (and romantic in her eyes) existence as either an outlaw under Jade Fox (a renegade old female fighter who murdered Mu-bai's master) or a somewhat more assured, but nonetheless unconventional, martial path with Mu-bai as a teacher.

In the end, Mu-bai does kill Jade Fox, but is fatally poisoned defending Jen from an attack of assassin needles aimed at Jen. Jade Fox wanted Jen murdered as Jen hid the true meanings of the secret Wudang journals from Jade. Jade had progressed as far she could since she could not read the manuals. Jen surpassed her and, according to Jade, Jen's potential was limitless.

Mu-bai, knowing that he will die, professes his feelings for Shu-lien. He dies, when Jen is unable to prepare the antidote quickly enough. A heartbroken Shu-lien then advises Jen that, no matter what path she chooses, she always remain true to herself. Jen goes to the sect at Wudang mountains and spends one last night with Lo, who is waiting for her. The next morning, he sees her standing beside the side of the mountain. She asks him to make a wish. He complies, and wishes for them to be back in the desert together.

Jen leaps into the clouds below, leaving Lo behind. The ending does not disclose whether she dies or not.