<P> Richard Corliss of Time magazine praised the film's lurid operatic aspect and states: "this is high, and high - wire, melodrama...where matters of love and death are played at a perfect fever pitch . And grand this Golden Flower is ." Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times states: "In Curse of the Golden Flower Mr. Zhang achieves a kind of operatic delirium, opening the floodgates of image and melodrama until the line between tragedy and black comedy is all but erased ." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times describes the film as: "A period spectacle, steeped in awesome splendor and lethal palace intrigue, it climaxes in a stupendous battle scene and epic tragedy" and "director Zhang Yimou's lavish epic celebrates the gifts of actress Gong Li while weaving a timeless tale of intrigue, corruption and tragedy ." Andrew O'Hehir of Salon states: "the morbid grandiosity of Curse of the Golden Flower is its own distinctive accomplishment, another remarkable chapter in the career of Asia's most important living filmmaker ." </P> <P> Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post writes: "Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower is a kind of feast, an over-the - top, all - stops - pulled - out lollapalooza that means to play kitschy and grand at once" and Hunter further states: "It's just a great old wild ride at the movies ." </P> <P> On the other hand, Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing feels that the film was a poor reflection of director Zhang Yimou's acclaimed works of the past . Bruce Westbrook of The Houston Chronicle though praising the film's spectacular visuals, states "Visuals alone can't make a story soar, and too often this one becomes bogged down by spectacle ..." Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter states the film is "A disappointing misfire from a great director ." Gene Seymour of Newsweek states: "Curse of the Golden Flower is to the feudal costumed adventure what Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar is to the Western . Both bend their genres to the extremes of operatic grandeur with such force as to pull up just below the level of High Camp ." However Seymour states in the end that the film is overly melodramatic and ludicrous to absorb . </P> <P> The film received a score of 70 out of 100 from film critics according to the review aggregator Metacritic and holds an average rating of 66% by film critics on the review ranking site Rotten Tomatoes . Yahoo! Movies gave the film a B grade based on critical consensus . It has grossed over $78 million worldwide . It was also the third highest grossing non-English language film in 2006 after Apocalypto and Pan's Labyrinth . </P>

Where was curse of the golden flower filmed