Curse of the Golden Flower, a film by Zhang Yimou, might give the attorney who is learning Mandarin a way to practice his/her ability to understand Chinese, and at the same time, experience the home of an emperor.
The film, starring Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li, is in Mandarin with English subtitles. It is about how sometimes those who appear to have it all on the outside(money, beauty, servants) are really living in tears on the inside.
The story is about an emperor who has three sons, and a beautiful empress. The empress, the emperor’s second wife, is forced once every hour to drink medicine that ruins her mental faculties, and makes her sweat. When she does not drink her entire bowl of medicine, the emperor forces her to drink the last drop.
The emperor lies to his sons, telling them that the first wife died, but in actuality, she married the house doctor. The empress, with all her jewels is trapped in a marriage with a man who poisons her. When the empress enlists the assistance of the emperor’s first wife, the emperor sends the doctor and his family away. The emperor tells the doctor that he is getting a promotion, but in actuality, he is sent to live in a place where he is attacked in the night by the emperor’s soldiers.
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