THE EPIC EAST GRAND `CURSE' COMBINES VISUAL OPULENCE, EXTRAVAGANT ACTION.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

When China wants to do something big, it has the resources.

``Curse of the Golden Flower'' is, at $45 million, the most expensive production in that nation's increasingly expanding filmmaking history.

Set during the 10th century's Later Tang Dynasty, the film is a riot of ultra-rich costumes, glittering palace sets and, toward the end, mass violence on a scale that required 1,000 extras from the People's Liberation Army.

It also boasts two of Asia's biggest stars, Hong Kong's Chow Yun-Fat (``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''; the upcoming ``Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'') and China's top actress, Gong Li (``Raise the Red Lantern,'' ``Farewell, My Concubine,'' ``Miami Vice''), as an emperor and empress whose domestic warfare with one another threatens the fate of the entire kingdom.

If all that wasn't enough, to add to ``Curse's'' spell, the film reunites Gong with Zhang Yimou, the director who discovered her, for the first time in a decade. The pair did more than anybody to put mainland Chinese cinema on the world map with such emotionally devastating dramas as ``Red Sorghum,'' ``Ju Dou,'' ``Red Lantern,'' ``The Story of Qiu Ju,'' ``To Live'' and their last collaboration, the 1995 ``Shanghai Triad.''

Gong and Zhang were also lovers at the time, a situation deemed somewhat shocking in the tradition-bound but rapidly changing communist state. Following their personal and professional breakup, she married a Beijing businessman and has been making inroads in Hollywood (beside ``Vice,'' Gong appeared in ``Memoirs of a Geisha'' and will be seen in the ``Silence of the Lambs'' prequel ``Hannibal Rising'' next month). Zhang continued making small, intimate films for a while before jumping on the lavishly produced, martial arts epic bandwagon with the international hits ``Hero'' and ``House of Flying Daggers.''

``Curse'' often plays like one of those movies crossed with a particularly over-the-top historical soap opera. But none of that was apparently reflected in the 10-year reunion going on behind the scenes.

``Now he's easier to get along with,'' Gong says, with a smile, through an interpreter. ``Nowadays, he's very calm and stable, as if he feels he's in control of everything. You can see it in a film like this one, in which there are thousands of extras; it's like coordinating an army. Somehow, it makes it easier to communicate with him than it was back when we were making smaller films like `Ju Dou' and `Raise the Red Lantern.' ''

Zhang, 15 years Gong's senior, notes through his own interpreter that the actress has matured in a different manner.

``She's really come into her own in a way that she wasn't back then,'' says the director, 56. ``She always had a kind of explosive quality about her as an actress. But I think she's experienced a lot and has a much wider emotional basis to draw upon now.''

``I'm now much more straightforward in saying what I think,'' Gong says. ``As far as getting along with Zhang Yimou this time, it was all very clear and very easy, actually. We had a very good professional relationship. There were a lot of suggestions, back and forth, and I didn't feel like there was any awkwardness or holding back. I felt very free and open with him.''

In spirit, she means. Considering the massive amounts of costuming the actors had to wear, she could not possibly have felt anything like free and open physically.

Chow, who's more used to lightweight gangster suits and loose monk smocks in his Hong Kong action movies, sure felt the restrictions of Late Tang haute couture.

An engineering coup

``We had different layers underneath that you didn't see,'' says the actor, speaking English for himself. ``In the Tang Dynasty days, they wore four, five or six layers of clothing. It's unbelievable. And you can see in the film, the texture of the costumes is gorgeous.

``For ordinary performing, it was OK. But once we got into the action sequences ... it was not easy to deal with. Luckily, we had a lot of wire work to help.''

No doubt true. But perhaps it's a little ungallant for a man to complain about his ``Curse'' costume when obviously the women must have been really uncomfortable in their getups. The Late Tang period was an era of decadence and sensual indulgence, and cleavage was held in very high regard.

At least according to Zhang, who had costume designer Yee Chung Man make special chest bands for the actresses, the results of which Victoria's Secret's top engineers may never be able to match.

``During the Tang Dynasty, the aesthetic preference for women was very robust and well-endowed,'' Zhang informs us. ``If you look at the paintings from back then, that's what people liked. It's historically accurate, and we wanted to be loyal to that.''

But it's still very constricting.

``There was a contrast between the inner and outer layers,'' Gong informs us. ``The inner part of the costume was actually quite light and comfortable, whereas the outer portions and robes were quite heavy.''

Well, that's good to know. Wouldn't want to think that the director was just trying to torture his ex-girlfriend or anything like that.

That would be too much like life following art, and Zhang's much too eloquent a storyteller to let that happen.

Chinese attitude

In the film, the emperor is slowly poisoning his scheming wife for, among other things, having an affair with her stepson, the crown prince. According to Chow, this reflects deeply ingrained Chinese attitudes of how such matters should be handled.

``It's very unusual for a Western audience to see this kind of a movie,'' Chow says. ``In our tradition, he cannot show something like this affair his wife is having to the public. That's why he has to slowly poison his queen. He can execute her straightaway. But for Chinese, face is very important. You cannot send out a news release saying, `My wife had an affair with my son.' ''

Indeed, the basic story line of ``Curse'' is very familiar to Chinese audiences. It's adapted from a play written and set in the 1930s, and favored by the Mao regime for decades following.

``Probably the biggest challenge of this was to take a modern drama that everyone in China knows and loves -- it's actually a required text for drama students to perform -- and transplant it into a martial-arts packaging set in traditional China,'' Zhang admits.

< Much bigger in China

Unsurprising, then, that ``Curse'' broke box-office records when it opened in China late last year. The film's North American grosses have not been nearly as impressive so far, though.

But if it doesn't connect with U.S. audiences, the principals aren't too concerned. Gong and Chow have their huge international careers and big Hollywood movies coming out, and Zhang makes no effort to hide his desire to get back to the more simple, compelling productions that used to be his hallmark.

``Although I seem to have unlimited resources, there's always a limit,'' the director notes.

Bob Strauss [phone]

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A pirate's life for him...

He's played the most romantic of martial artists (``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''), the coolest of crime-world characters (John Woo's ``The Killer,'' ``Hard Boiled'' and ``A Better Tomorrow'') and even the King of Siam.

But Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat is really, really, really excited about being a pirate. In May's third installment of the ``Pirates of the Caribbean'' franchise, ``At World's End,'' Chow is duplicitous Capt. Sao Feng, the leader of a band of Chinese buccaneers whose dicey cooperation is instrumental in rescuing Capt. Jack Sparrow from watery damnation.

``It's a major change in my film-business career,'' the 51-year-old Chow enthuses, grinning like an eager kid. ``Myself, I'm a fan of parts one and two, so it's like a dream come true to work with Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush. And it's a very interesting character. Without this guy, Johnny Depp will be locked up in Davy Jones' Locker. (My character is) the key guy! He's got the only real directions that will save Jack Sparrow.''

-- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) in full Flower

Opulent screen saga reflects China's expanding film industry

Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist

(2) no caption (``Curse of the Golden Flower'')

(3) no caption (Chow Yun-Fat)

Box:

A pirate's life for him... (see text)