Factual error: When the Empress is dressing for the Chrysanthemum festival, bobby pins and hair pins are visible in her hair, not made available until the 20th century.
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Starring: Yun-Fat Chow, Li Gong, Jay Chou, Ye Liu
Chan (the doctor's daughter) is Crown Prince Wan's half sister and their mother is the Empress's spy and the Emperor's former wife. The Empress reveals the truth that the doctor's wife (Chan's mother) is the Crown Prince's mother moments before the Chrysanthemum festival. Chan runs away, shocked by the revelation, her mother runs after her and they are both killed by the Emperor's scythe wielding assassins. The youngest son, Cheng (who's had the smallest role in the story), figured everything out, kills Prince Wan and demands to be heir to the throne, exclaiming that he's always been ignored. Cheng's troops attack but they're easily defeated by the Emperor's assassins. The Emperor beats Cheng to death in retaliation for killing his son Wan. Prince Jai (the Empress's eldest son) and his troops attack the city to overthrow the emperor but are outnumbered and defeated by the Emperor's troops. The Emperor tells Jai that his attempt to take the throne was unnecessary because he changed his mind about the heir and was going to name Jai as the new heir. The Emperor allows Jai to avoid execution on the condition that he must give his mother (the Empress) her lethal medicine every day. Jai says to the Emperor that he didn't try to take the throne for himself but for his mother. He refuses to be the one to give her the medicine (or: the one to indirectly kill her slowly) and kills himself. The only ones left are the Emperor and Empress and when she has the cup of medicine served, she angrily rejects it and the cup falls corroding what it touches...
Racer X
More mistakes in Curse of the Golden Flower
Emperor Ping: What I do not give, you must never take by force.
Trivia: The plot of the movie is based on a 1934 play Thunderstorm by Yu Cao, a Chinese playwright, set in the 10th-century imperial China court. The Mandarin Chinese movie title is taken from the last line of a poem by a 9th-century rebel leader who was at war against the Tang Dynasty.
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