Curse of the Golden Flower is a 2006 Chinese epic drama film directed by Zhang Yimou.
With a budget of US$45 million, it was at the time of its release the most expensive Chinese film to date, surpassing Chen Kaige's The Promise. It was chosen as China's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2006; but did not receive the nomination. The film was however nominated for Costume Design. In 2007 it received fourteen nominations at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards and won Best Actress forGong Li, Best Art Direction, Best Costume and Make Up Design and Best Original Film Song for "菊花台" (Chrysanthemum Terrace) by Jay Chou.
The plot is based on Cao Yu's 1934 play Thunderstorm (雷雨 pinyin: Léiyǔ), but is set in the Imperial court 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). The Emperor has returned to celebrate the holiday with his family. For three years, the Empress (Gong Li) and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson, have had an illicit affair. Prince Wan secretly dreams of escaping the palace with his secret lover Jiang Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows curious and then worried over the Empress's health and her abnormal obsession with golden chrysanthemums.
For ten days, the Emperor had ordered Jiang Yiru, the Imperial Doctor and his daughter, Jiang Chan, to secretly add tiny amounts of a poisonousPersian black fungus into the medicine that the Empress takes several times a day. The Empress summons Prince Jai, revealing to him her plot of rebellion. She asks for his participation but Jai hesitates, saying that it would be difficult for him to take up arms against his own father. After seeing his mother take a poisoned dose, he relents and agrees to participate...
A woman-in-black is captured by Prince Wan and taken to the Emperor, and it is revealed that she was Jiang Shi (Chen Jin), Jiang Yiru's wife, Jiang Chan's mother, and also the Emperor's previous lover. The Emperor promotes the doctor, sending him from the Palace to serve as governor of a remote area. Prince Wan runs after them to see Chan. From the information that Chan provides him with, he senses that the Empress is plotting something, so he hurries back to the palace and confronts her. The Empress, already losing her mind, bluntly claims that she just wants Wan to die and continue with her plan. Wan, in a panic, stabs himself and is put under care.
The doctor's family are attacked by mysterious assassins-in-black who kill Jiang Yiru. Chan and her mother are forced back to the palace. When they return the Empress reveals that Jiang Shi was actually the mother of Prince Wan, meaning his secret lover, Chan, is in fact his half-sister. Realizing this, a shocked and crazed Chan flees the palace screaming in horror with her mother chasing behind. Both are killed by the assassins-in-black.
Prince Yu abruptly kills Prince Wan and attempts to oblige the Emperor to abdicate the throne to him. He confesses that he also learned of the plot and his brother's affair with the Empress and acted in advance to gain the throne. The Emperor's assassins-in-black eliminate Prince Yu's tiny rebel force easily, and the Emperor beats Yu to death.
Thousands of golden armored warriors led by Prince Jai and wearing the embroidered flowers of the Empress charge the palace. As they charge forward, the Emperor's personal assassins attempt to stop them. Although Prince Jai's men take various casualties, they manage to beat the assassins and move forward. As the golden-armored army marches into the imperial square, they are boxed in by a clever trap. It is clear that the Emperor had full knowledge of the plot and had quietly moved a large army into the palace. From their superior position they are able to cut down the rebels with a massive hail of arrows. The Prince continues to fight but eventually surrenders. The survivors of the golden army are gathered, bound and executed on the Emperor's orders. After the battle, the courtyard is swiftly cleaned up as if the evening's event had never transpired and the Festival begins at midnight as scheduled.
The Emperor offers to spare Jai on the condition that he henceforth personally administer the medicine to the Empress. Prince Jai refused his father's order, apologized to his mother for his failure and then committed suicide, his blood spilling on the Empress's medicine. The Empress lets out a furious shriek and slaps the plate out of the servant's hands. The film then ends with an image of the poisonous medicine landing on an engraved wooden chrysanthemum and eating away at it.
Traditional
滿城盡帶黃金甲
Simplified
满城尽带黄金甲
Mandarin
Mǎnchéng Jìndài Huángjīnjiǎ
Directed by
Zhang Yimou
Produced by
William Kong
Zhang Weiping
Zhang Yimou
Written by
Zhang Yimou
Starring
Chow Yun-fat Gong Li Jay Chou
Qin Junjie
Music by
Shigeru Umebayashi
Cinematography
Zhao Xiaoding
Distributed by
United States: Sony Pictures Classics Hong Kong:
Edko Film
Shaolin Soccer adalah film Hongkong yang dirilis pada tahun 2001. Film ini disutradarai dan juga diperankan oleh Stephen Chow. Film yang mengisahkan seorang gelandangan yang ingin mengubah nasib dengan cara menerapkan ilmu bela diri shaolin yang dia miliki, dan berusaha mengumpulkan saudara-saudara seperguruannya untuk menjadi pemain sepak bola.
Pada tahun 2008, sebuah sekuel dari film ini dirilis, Stephen Chow sebagai produsernya. Film tersebut berjudul Shaolin Girl, tapi Stephen Chow tidak bermain di sekuel tersebut. Sedikit sekali pemeran dari Shaolin Soccer yang bermain di film ini.
Sutradara
Stephen Chow
Produser
Yeung Kwok-Fai
Penulis
Stephen Chow Tsang Kan-Cheung
Pemeran
Stephen Chow Zhao Wei Ng Man Tat Patrick Tse Wong Yat-Fei Danny Chan Kwok Kwan
Musik
Lowell Lo Raymond Wong
Sinematografi
Kwen Pak-Huen Kwong Ting-Wo
Penyunting
Kai Kit-Wai
Distribusi
Hong Kong:
Universe Entertainment Ltd. Amerika Serikat: Miramax Films
Contraband is an American action crime thriller film directed by Baltasar Kormákur, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale. The film is a remake of the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavík-Rotterdam that starred Kormákur. Contraband was released on January 13, 2012, in the United States, by Universal Pictures.
Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-smuggler who now has a peaceful life with his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and their two sons in New Orleans. They learn that Kate's brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) was smuggling drugs, but dropped them into the Mississippi River during a surprise inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P.).
Andy's boss, ruthless mobster Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), threatens to kill Chris' family if Andy doesn't pay $700,000. Chris decides to raise the money by running contraband, working with his best friend and former smuggling partner, Sebastian Abney (Ben Foster), who has also gone legitimate and now owns a construction company. He promises Kate that he will not run drugs, joining the crew of a cargo ship in order to buy $10,000,000 in fake bills in Panama and smuggle them into the U.S. He is joined by Andy, good friend Danny Raymer (Lukas Haas), and gets help from fellow crew mates. Briggs breaks into Chris' house to scare his wife and kids, so they move into Sebastian's house for safety.
In Panama, Chris discovers that the bills were not printed on starch-free paper (meaning they could easily be found as fakes) and refuses to accept them. The only one who can provide good quality bills is crime lord Gonzalo (Diego Luna). When Briggs calls Andy and threatens to kill one of Chris' sons, Andy takes Chris' money and uses it to buy the cocaine Andy wants. With the money gone, Gonzalo lets Chris and Danny help in a dangerous armored car heist as payment for the fake bills. They are successful in stealing a painting – little more than a paint splattered unframed tarp – in the heist, but Gonzalo and his men are killed, along with numerous police and security officers.
Chris and Danny make it back to the ship yard in a van containing the fake bills and the paint splattered tarp. They load the contraband-laden van into a container which is loaded onto their cargo ship. Chris assaults Andy for stealing the money and buying cocaine.
It is revealed that Sebastian has been working with Briggs, as gangster Jim Church (David O'Hara) threatens to kill Sebastian if he doesn't repay money he borrowed to save his fledgling construction business. When Sebastian calls Chris, Chris tells him that he might drop the drugs Andy bought into the ocean—angry that Andy had done the cocaine side deal. Sebastian tells Briggs, who assaults Kate and warns her to tell Chris to not dump the "package".
Kate calls Chris and tells him what Briggs said to her. Chris is surprised that Briggs knew about dumping the drugs, realizing that Sebastian had to have told him. Kate does not know and goes back to Sebastian's apartment to retrieve some personal items. When Sebastian tries to force himself on her, he accidentally bashes her head against a bathtub. Sebastian thinks she is dead and throws her (unconscious) body in a yet to be poured foundation.
Sebastian contacts the cargo ship's Captain Camp (J K Simmons), tells him that Chris is smuggling on his ship, and promises him a share if he makes sure Chris doesn't throw it overboard. When Chris does not give up the contraband, Camp calls the C.B.P. to meet the ship in New Orleans. The C.B.P. agents find the container with Chris' van, but the van is empty save for the paint splattered tarp.
Once Chris is on shore, Briggs and his thugs demand the drug package. Chris takes Briggs to Camp's house, having made a duplicate key while on the ship, and knowingly activates the security system. Chris opens Camp's personal carpet cleaner, which Camp had aboard the ship, and retrieves the cocaine from the carpet cleaner's water tank. While Briggs and his gang sit in Camp's living room with the cocaine, Chris sneaks out in Camp's car. Camp awakens to the noise and comes into the living room as the police arrive. Both Briggs and Camp are arrested, in possession of the cocaine.
Chris goes to Sebastian's construction site and brutally beats him, demanding Kate's location. When Sebastian tells Chris that she's dead, he tries calling her cellphone and hears the ringtone in a building foundation where cement is being poured and rescues her. Sebastian is arrested and sent to prison, where he has to answer to Chris's prisoner father.
Danny retrieves the fake bills, which we learn Chris had dumped into the Mississippi River before docking in New Orleans. Needing a vehicle to transport the bills, Andy buys the escape van, which the C.B.P. had confiscated from the cargo ship, at a C.B.P. auction. Church pays Chris $3 million for the fake currency and asks if he knows anything about a Jackson Pollock painting stolen from an armored car in Panama, telling him that it's worth $140 million and can be fenced for over $20 million on the black market. Chris, Andy and Danny find the painting – the nondescript paint splattered tarp – still in the van.
Following Chris and Andy's involvement in multiple killings, drug smuggling, trading in counterfeit currency, framing the ship's captain for a crime he did not commit, and selling a stolen art masterpiece, the film ends with Chris, Kate, Andy and the kids living a comfortable life in a waterfront house.
Directed by
Baltasar Kormákur
Produced by
Tim Bevan Eric Fellner
Baltasar Kormákur
Stephen Levinson
Mark Wahlberg
Screenplay by
Aaron Guzikowski
Based on
Reykjavík-Rotterdamwritten by Arnaldur Indriðason Óskar Jónasson
Starring
Mark Wahlberg Kate Beckinsale Ben Foster Giovanni Ribisi
Music by
Clinton Shorter
Cinematography
Barry Ackroyd
Editing by
Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Studio
Relativity Media Working Title Films Blueeyes Productions
Leverage Entertainment
Closest to the Hole Productions
Drive Angry is a 2011 American supernatural action film starring Nicolas Cage and Amber Heard, and directed by Patrick Lussier. It was released on February 25, 2011. Shot in 3-D, the film was met with a mixed reception and grossed almost $30 million.
John Milton (Nicolas Cage) is an undead criminal that has broken out of Hell to kill Jonah King (Billy Burke), a cult leader that tricked Milton's daughter into joining his followers in the wake of Milton's death, only to kill her and her husband and steal their daughter - Milton's granddaughter - to be sacrificed in a Satanist ritual.
After interrogating some of King's followers, Milton discovers that the ritual will take place in Stillwater, a prison in Louisiana. He heads there, but stops by a diner, where he meets Piper (Amber Heard), a waitress who is withholding sex from her boyfriend, Frank (Todd Farmer), so he will marry her. Milton's car is damaged, so he sabotages Piper's car, a 1967 Dodge Charger R/T 500 and follows her to fix it in exchange for a ride to her home (a motel room), which is on the way to Stillwater.
Entering the room, Piper walks in on Frank having sex with another woman and grabs her by the hair dragging her outside, punching her out, and later fighting with Frank, getting knocked to the ground. Milton in a phonebooth nearby, hears the commotion and comes to Piper's aide, kicking Frank in the face as he is about to continue beating Piper, and punching Frank repeatedly, with Frank's head hitting an A/C causing it to fall out of the window onto his face. Milton steals his car, taking Piper along with him driving to Stillwater. Meanwhile, a supernatural operative of Satan, The Accountant (William Fichtner), arrives on Earth with the mission to bring Milton back to Hell. After interrogating Frank, he discovers that Milton and Piper are heading to Louisiana and tricks the police into helping him by impersonating an FBI agent.
At a shady hotel, Milton is attacked by King and his men, who heard about his return, but he kills most of them. The Accountant appears with the police and chases after Milton and Piper, who are chasing after King's Van. Milton uses a gun labeled "The Godkiller" to shoot the Accountant out of the road. They then follow King to a church, only to find it filled with King's followers. They are ambushed and captured. Piper is kidnapped and Milton is shot in the face and left for dead, but he awakens and kills King's men before pursuing his RV once again. Inside, Piper breaks free and fights King before jumping out of the RV and onto Milton's car. King then disables the car by repeatedly shooting its engine.
Milton and Piper then meet Milton's friend Webster (David Morse), who provides them a new car. Piper discovers that Milton is literally undead (demonstrated when his eye regenerated back after being shot by Jonah at the church) and had to abandon his daughter to protect her from his former companions and that's why she was so easily manipulated by King. She also discovers that the Godkiller was stolen by Milton from Satan himself and has the power to completely destroy one's soul, preventing it from going to either Heaven or Hell. Meanwhile, the Accountant discovers that Milton is trying to save his granddaughter from being sacrificed and decides to help him due to Satan's distaste for people that sacrifice innocent people in his name.
Piper realizes that Milton has returned from Hell to rescue his granddaughter. Milton tells Piper that he can not guarantee her safety and that she should leave, but she assures him that she has never had a worthy cause to fight for until now, and that she is with him regardless of the consequences. They then set off to Stillwater, evading the troops of Sheriff Cap (Tom Atkins) with the help of the Accountant and finally arriving at Stillwater. The Accountant captures Piper and forces Milton to give up the Godkiller before he can engage King, but he allows Milton to go into battle against King and his followers to save his granddaughter, noting that Satan is more of a warden for a very large prison rather than the master of Evil, and is actually against the sacrifice of children in his name.
While Milton slaughters King's men before they can sacrifice the child, Piper escapes The Accountant's clutches with the Godkiller. King eventually gets the upper hand on Milton and savagely beats him. Piper fires the Godkiller at King, but misses and hits one of his few surviving men instead. She is knocked out by the gun's recoil. King orders one of his female servants to murder the child. However, the woman, who had been caring for the baby ever since King stole her, finds herself unable to carry out the deed, allowing Milton to grab the Godkiller and shoot King, destroying his soul. The Accountant retrieves the baby. He allows Milton to say goodbye to her, and Milton gives the baby to Piper, and makes her promise to care for and protect her. Webster arrives and looks on as Milton "dies".
After both Piper and Webster have left, Milton is revealed to be still alive (because he is already dead) and with the Accountant. He agrees to go back to Hell, but warns that if he is punished too severely for his actions, he will escape again. The Accountant claims that he looks forward to it, insinuating that chasing Milton is the most fun he has ever had. The Accountant then wiggles with his keys and manifests a black 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air, before throwing them to Miltion. They then drive off into the gates of Hell.
Directed by
Patrick Lussier
Produced by
Michael De Luca
Written by
Todd Farmer
Patrick Lussier
Starring
Nicolas Cage Amber Heard William Fichtner Billy Burke Charlotte Ross Katy Mixon
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