Awesome Movie

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Yimou Zhang's Technicolor tragedy centres on the ill-fated Ju Dou, an indentured wife and labourer sold to the barbarous Jin-shan, owner of the local dye mill. Jin-shan's put upon nephew Tianqing falls immediately for his new auntie. Their coupling produces a child that brings temporary respite for Ju Dou, but new complications, and further tragedies, await.Brutal and exquisite in equal measure, Ju Dou is high tragedy set amongst the lower order. Ju Dou (an indomitable Li Gong) fights to have any kind of life, finding in Tianqing (a delicate Li Baotian) a true soul-mate. The marriage that brings each into the sphere of the other means their relationship is taboo (Ang Lee surely had this film as a reference for Brokeback Mountain), and their compassion means Jin-shan is always around to try and thwart their happiness. The illegitimate child who holds their hopes in his existence instead becomes a weapon wielded by an unkind universe to punish them further.If Tianqing existed in the west, he would be Hardy's Jude. Or Hamlet. A truly cathartic, beautiful film.

Readers send me recommendations of films that use architecture cinematically. Water, smoke, fire (fireworks), are the usual supplements to built space. To that I've recently added cloth, based on a reviewing of "Brother Sun." This was recommended.Its an early, intimate film from the man who later brought us epics that sometimes work with space: flying leaves, smoke, fabric, knives. He's quite committed to cinematic architecture, space. I appreciate it. In this case, the project is small, with few aspirations. The story is a familiar one (two men, a woman and a shared child), and really quite ordinary except that the acting is good. The real center of this is the house.Its a combination of residence for the two men and woman, and a business where the three dye fabric and hang it in long bolts to dry. The place is wonderfully, gently photographed in places, and that is to be expected. The way the thing is staged is very typical of Chinese films of the era: every shot is carefully arranged with the surrounding space emphasized with color, planes and light. Its not dynamic, but very effective. I include this in my list of "folding' effects that bring the viewer into the world of the film. Making space, always impinges on our space.But there's another effect at work here. I like it when this filmmaker uses the environment as indication. This is also typically Chinese, but usually has to do with political events or natural disasters, of some such. Here, when the cousin and virgin wife do have their first sex, a long newly strip of fabric, perhaps 35 feet long, makes a waterfall of red collapse into a pool of red dye. Its a remarkably powerful image capturing blood, a sort of gravity of sex (both senses), indeed an inevitability. Its the entire tragedy in one scene, the human copulation just off screen.Later, this pool would swallow both the men, one after another. The transgressor will end up literally in this pool of red, with the very same inevitable, continuing drape falling over him. Its not the cleverest or most subtle working of architectural space into cloth and thence into nearly a character, one that indicates and has agency, both as the force that starts the tragedy and ends it.Its worth it. See it before you see that later epic excesses.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Gong Li is just about one of the most beautiful actresses in the world today. It is hard to believe that she has been acting for 20 years.This is one of her earlier works, and it is an excellent example of her talent. It is also one of the early films for Yimou Zhang, who also directed Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower. He shows the promise of a great director in this film.There is not much that is pleasant her. Ju Dou (Gong Li) is bought by an evil man who has beaten two wives to death for not bearing him a son. She is beaten mercilessly and he has constant sex with her to have a son.The problem is not his wives, but him, and she has a son secretly with his nephew (Baotian Li). It saves her life, but matters continue to get more and more complicated until the final tragedy.One of the really interesting features of the film is the Chinese funeral ritual.The film is a great example of the early work of two great talents, but do not think that early means weak, as they were bother strong from the beginning.

A good movie makes you feel and this one does that ...the Technicolor is amazing and the story makes you pause and reflect. The story is pretty old boy meet girl and girl is unavailable. No new twists, she is married and her husband is older and cruel (of course). Additionally he is hell bent on making a son and has "gone" through a couple of wives already. However, as this film develops the viewer feels compassion for the the would be lovers. There are places, one of the more pivotal point in the film is where the husband has an accident and how the protagonist reacts. Basically when I finished watching the film I felt quiet-not peaceful just a bit disturbed. The images from the movie continued to play in my head and it just made me wonder about the levels of cruelty people suffer through and place upon others. ten lines is a lot to write...help me end this now, I am starting to wonder if I should have just left it at voting...