Ju Dou
Tags: tragedy, murder, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Ju Dou takes place in the early 20th century in rural China. The story begins as Yang Tianqing (the regular Zhang collaborator Li Baotian) is returning from a trek to sell silk for his adoptive uncle, Yang Jinshan (Li Wei). Jinshan, whose trade is dyeing fabrics, is known for his cruelty. Tianqing learns that Jinshan has just recently purchased a new wife, having beaten two previous wives to death after they failed to produce a son, the cruel irony being that Jinshan is in fact impotent.
Upon meeting the wife, Ju Dou (Gong Li), Tianqing is immediately enamored with her. At night, Jinshan tortures Ju Dou. Eventually, Tianqing discovers Ju Dou's bathing area and spies on her. He does not know that Ju Dou knows he is there. Although Tianqing watches luridly, by exposing her bruises to him and sobbing, Ju Dou transforms the meaning of his gaze, forcing him to see her not only as a sexual object, but also as a human being.
Soon, the two are unable to control their passions any longer, and they engage in sexual intercourse. When Ju Dou discovers she is pregnant, she and Tianqing pretend that the child is Jinshan's. Jinshan suffers a stroke which leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. Confined to a wheel chair, he nevertheless discovers Ju Dou and Tianqing's affair and attempts to kill the child. Jinshan is tied up by Tianqing and hoisted in a large barrel, leaving him dangling helplessly. Knowing that society would never accept her infidelities, Ju Dou goes to a nunnery to get contraceptives.
Meanwhile, Tianbai has grown into a sullen child (Yi Zhang), but when he calls Jinshan "Father", Jinshan accepts the boy as his son. Jinshan falls into the dye vat and drowns one day while playing with his son and a funeral is carried out for him.
Ten years later. Ju Dou and Tianqing still run the dye operation, but Tianbai (now played by Zheng Ji'an) is now a rage-filled teenager. Rumors of his parents' infidelities drive him to nearly kill a local gossip. Upon discovering his parents resting in an underground cellar after one of their trysts, Tianbai drags them out and drowns Tianqing. Ju Dou then burns the mill down as the film ends.

Review: The title character, a peasant sold as a concubine to a cruel old man, is played by the beautiful Gong Li, one of the great actresses of our time who followed this brilliant work with spectacular performances in The Story of Qiu Ju (1991), Raise the Red Lantern (1992), and Farewell, My Concubine (1993).
The third character in the tragic triangle is Jin-shan's nephew, Yang Tianqing, a modest man who does most of the work in the dye mill.
Ju Dou falls in love with Tianqing almost by default, and it is their ill-fated love that leads to tragedy.In some ways this visually stunning, psychologically brutal film about paternity and the old social order of China was Director Zhang Yimou's "practice" for the making two years later of his masterpiece, the afore mentioned, Raise the Red Lantern, one the greatest films ever made.
The theme of patriarchal privilege is similar, and in both films Gong Li portrays a young concubine required to bear a son and heir to a cruel and ageing man of means.
Even though the setting in both films is China in the twenties before the rise of Communism, both films very much annoyed the ageing leadership of Communist China and were censured (Ju Dou was actually banned), ostensibly for moral reasons, but more obviously because of the way they depicted elderly men in positions of power.
Both films are masterpieces, but for me Ju Dou was difficult to watch because of the overt cruelty of the master, whereas in Raise the Red Lantern, Yimou chose to keep the more brutal aspects of the story off camera.
He embraces the child as his own, hoping to turn the boy against the illicit couple.The strength of the film is in the fine acting, the beautiful sets, the gorgeous camera work, and in the unsentimental story that does not compromise or cater to saccharin or simplistic expectations.
Indeed part of the power of this film comes from the depiction of the character of the son who grows up to hate who he is and acts out his hatred in murderous violence toward those around him.Zhang Yimou is one of the few directors who can bring simultaneously to the silver screen the power of an epic and the subtlety of a character study.
The only weakness in the film is perhaps the ending which is played like a Greek tragedy for cathartic effect.
One senses that Yimou and co-director Yang Fengliang in choosing the terminus were not entirely sure how this tale should end and took what might be seen as an easy way out.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
Even though the film is set in the 20s, 'Ju Dou' was one of the most controversial movies in China and it was banned arguably due to the way a powerful elderly man was depicted, a woman rebelling against a man and/or the depiction of injustice towards women in China and preference for a male heir.A natural beauty, Gong Li in her early days, plays the title role of a peasant girl who's sold to an evil old man.
Li Baotian, as the evil master's nephew with whom Ju Dou has an illicit relationship, is just as brilliant.The cinematography deserves special mention and some of the visuals and sceneries of the Chinese landscape are breathtaking.
The writing is very good as the film sticks to the main story (no subplots) and the characters are rich, even that of the child who doesn't say anything.
For example how the impotent evil master was once so intimidating that he tortured his previous wives to death but how quickly this turns around after Ju Dou gives birth and later on he sees hope in the child and uses him to vindicate his helpless state but that too has consequences.
When seeing Ju Dou the viewer may want to take into consideration the three part structure of the film: a.) The beginning to where the old man becomes crippled b.) The second portion, which involves the birth of the son to where one of the lead character's dies and c.) The third portion, which involves the child.
It is also one of the early films for Yimou Zhang, who also directed Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower.
Ju Dou (Gong Li) is bought by an evil man who has beaten two wives to death for not bearing him a son.
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..
Ju Dou. Mesmerizing melodrama set in 1920's China about a young woman who is forced to wed an abusive dye mill owner, who tortures her like an animal for not giving him a son, but more importantly, an heir.
When watching Ju Dou it suddenly occurred to me that although Zhang Yimou is known for his political arguments the film seems to breathe through a warm and loving hope from Tianqing and Ju Dou. The political references and damnation of the treatment of women resonate but I found myself taking this hope theme and putting it out front.
The beauty of the photography is unmatched, in particular the stunning shot of Tianqing working in the dye mill with the whole background illuminated with the suns reddened glare but there is the lack of visual plausibility, being the narrow minded baffoon that I am, the first thought to enter my head was that Ju Dou would never go for Tianqing, look how skinny and ugly the guy is!
It is truly hypnotic, and Li Baotian shows the contradictory nature of Tianqing, especially his tortured obedience in front of his "uncle" and his masculine dependence on Ju Dou that gives the film so much heart, despite his obvious lack of meat.What isn't so great is the episodic feel that is helped none by the titles indicating the passage of time.
Pacing feels a little disjointed, probably because the inciting incident happens quite a long way into the film, but maybe I got that and the act climax confused, note: must watch again.Small discrepancies aside, my problem is with the narrative.
Of course, Ju Dou is one Zhang's earliest films and none of his later films that I have seen have suffered from this, but then again they do not portray a claustrophobic feeling so well in streets and houses as well as showing the vastness of the country itself.
A visual metaphor for the people being close, feeling each other's pain and joy, with the money, the government for instance, far away, unable, or not wanting to see the plight of the citizens.And on a final note, the uncle's mean streak and his black heart did not make me feel any less sorry for him in the middle of the film, which although adds a little hostility to Ju Dou, gives us another wonderful character in the film.
No one is perfect.I would highly recommend Ju Dou to all fans of Chinese cinema, especially those who prefer this to the action movies they produce by the bucket load in Hong Kong and are rarely any good unless they star Jet Li, or anyone who has a love of ambience in their movies.
I understand (or at least am aware of) the basics of Chinese society enough to get most things in this film, but like "ebossert" said, many of the things that the child does seem to bear little relation to the reality around him.
She plays the lead character in the film named Ju Dou. She is a poor woman who is purchased by an old, impotent, and extremely cruel and abusive man who owns a Dye Factory.
This story of a suffering Chinese wife in 1920s China who seeks sexual gratification outside of her impotent husband is a straightforward tale of passion.
I feel like the film spent too much time introducing the characters and not enough time explaining their situations.Overall, Ju Dou is an interesting film.
returns from selling silk for his adoptive uncle, Yang J., who dyes fabrics to sell and is a cruel man who beats his wives to death because they fail to produce sons.
His new wife, Ju Dou(Gong Li) is also abused by her husband and Yang T.
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.
Together with minimalist music and beautiful, composed shots of rural life, Zhang has created a film that within its picturesque landscape lies a haunting circular tragedy..
Ju Dou is Zhang Yimou's first Palme d'Or (Cannes) nominated film.
Perhaps the most famous and acclaimed mainland Chinese filmmaker known to the West, Zhang took Chinese cinema to a new level of prominence in the early 1990s, spearheading the Fifth Generation movement together with a few other directors, most notably with Chen Kaige, who made Yellow Earth (1985) and Farewell, My Concubine (1993).Ju Dou is also the name of the lead character played by Gong Li. She is a woman in poverty who is bought by a rich old man who runs a dye mill together with his poor nephew, Tianqing.
However, the old man is impotent and physically and sexually abuses Ju Dou every night because she could not give him a son.
Slowly, their relationship turns into an extramarital affair, leading to Ju Dou's pregnancy and birth of a newborn son, which she manages to convince the old man is his.Steeped in Chinese cultural values and tradition, Zhang's film is like a classical Greek tragedy set in 1920s rural China.
The son grows up to be a quiet and violent person, and appears to lay the blame on Tianqing for impregnating his mother, and causing his rightful father anguish.In the film's most bitterly ironic sequence, Ju Dou and Tianqing are forced to follow a Chinese custom – to weep, call out to their dead family member, and try to stop the coffin for 49 times.
When a character dies, he drowns in red dye, as yards of red cloth drop and conceal him, like the drawing of stage curtains on a performer after a show has finished.Together with minimalist music and beautiful, composed shots of rural life, Zhang has created a film that within its picturesque landscape lies a haunting circular tragedy.
It is also an indirect but potent critique of China's Cultural Revolution with the old man taking on the symbol of Maoist brutality and injustice, and "his" son as the symbol of the Red Guard, brainwashed from young to retaliate against the non-Maoist ideology – the right to individual freedom – as embraced by Ju Dou and Tianqing, but very sadly, cruelly denied.SCORE: 8.5/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!.
It doesn't take much of this comforting to get her pregnant with a son that ends up being even more evil than Jin-shan himself, especially since young Tian-bai refuses to acknowledge Tian-qing in any way.Characterizations are very slim here, most likely to ensure that the viewer doesn't try to look at the characters as anything more than allegorical stand-ins for a government so repressive that they banned the film for portraying an extramarital affair and so stupid that they didn't realize that the film is highly critical of their regime.
Of course the ill-fated central couple is representative of the middle class people who understand the situation they are in but lack the power to change it.The film works as an allegory but comes off as rather unengaging if taken literally since the characters aren't fleshed out.
Here she plays the title character of Ju Dou, a young woman forced into marriage to Yang Jinshan, the brutal and sadistic owner of a dye mill, who beats and tortures her, and also wants her to bear him a son and heir.
Ju Dou and Tianqing fall in love with each other, and have a child, who is assumed to be Jinshan's.
Controversial melodrama from China has a middle-aged man falling for the abused wife of his "adopted" uncle while working in a dye plant on the outskirts of town.
Directors Fengliang Yang and Yimou Zhang have fashioned a no-holds-barred human tragedy here, painted in rich, vivid colors, but the downbeat tone of the whole thing is a bit wearing, especially since the film runs too long.
Banned in its own country for showing the Chinese people in a negative light, the movie went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.
The beautiful but mostly in this film unglamorous Gong Li plays the title character, a young woman forced into marriage with a much older silk dyer.
The old man ends up getting crippled in an accident, and Ju-Dou and Tianqing carry on their affair, almost gleefully under the husband's nose.
Ju Dou is certainly an engaging enough film, because I like a filmmaker like Zhang Yimou who can be so fascinating with deep hues of colors in his costumes, sets, and cinematography.
tradition, the emotional tempests people would go through under the businesslike customs and conventions of the time period.Ju Dou is worth seeing for its directors and writer's intuitive understanding of its drama and Gong Li's intense early performance.
This work by Zhang Yimou (for those of you who don't know, Chinese surnames are written and spoken before first names) is an excellent step towards the masterpiece that came next in his line of films.
Please see this film if you get a chance--it's well worth it, especially if you like Zhang and/or Chinese cinema in particular..
One of Zhang Yimou's early movies casts Gong Li as the abused wife of a wealthy silk dyer in 1920s China.
She starts having an affair with her husband's nephew...but complications arise.The visuals play a major role in "Ju Dou".
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.
The only characters that seem to develop in a normal way are the uncle, Jin-shan, and his wife, Jo Dou. The attention that was paid to this awful relationship overshadowed the lack of detail paid to the characters in the rest of the movie.Jo Dou is the only character with a healthy motivation, and her fall is the "T" in the tragedy here.
One gets the idea from watching this that in society, and Chinese society especially, some people feel that their children are dropped from trees, and that the only way a child can develop a personality is from encountering other children and playing with them.
The details of Tian-bai's upbringing that lead to his murderous behavior are almost entirely eliminated from the story.At this point the movie goes upside down, the Uncle's develops moral superiority as well as ownership of the child, and for Tian-qing and Ju Dou, everything is downhill from there.
During this period, the old man's nephew, who is treated horribly by his uncle, begins to obsess over his new aunt's beauty.
The old man is ecstatic, not so much because his "son" has just spoken as because he knows the implications of the child knowing him as his father instead of his cousin.I won't go any further, but this film becomes more painful by the second.
I do not like how Yimou uses slow motion in this film.
I think the only problem in Raise the Red Lantern was also the very end, where Gong Li's character just goes insane.
JU DOU is another early effort for Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and one that has much in common with his debut feature RED SORGHUM.
The film is a tragedy, focusing on the characters of Ju Dou (Gong Li), a beautiful young woman who has been sold as a wife to Yang Jinshan (Li Wei), an old cloth dyer.Ju Dou is a superbly torrid melodrama with similarities to The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946); the colours have a livid force and the storytelling holds you completely in its grip.
This is a very brief review of "Red Sorghum" (1987), "Ju Dou" (1990), "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991), "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) and "To Live" (1994), five films by Zhang Yimou.
Each film stars actress Gong Li, each works as a companion-piece to the other, and each deals almost exclusively with the oppression of women within early 20th century China.Zhang's debut, "Red Sorghum" stars Gong Li as Young Nine, a peasant who is sold to a wealthy leper.
Any Zhang Yimou movie is great, and this one is particularly good.
It's not "Raise The Red Lantern," mind, but very good, and obviously a lot of the movie was done as a sort of precursor to Raise The Red Lantern, which also features the awesomely sexy Gong Li.The basic plot line involves a miserly old man, Jinshan, and his adopted nephew, Tianqing.
Jinshan purchases a new wife, Ju Dou, played, of course, by Gong Li. It turns out he's a brutal sadist who makes up for his impotence by torturing his wives.
Ju Dou turns to Tianqing, with whom she conceives a son.
The movie is basically about Tianqing and Ju Dou trying to find happiness, in spite of a son who won't recognize Tianqing as his father (and later kills him), a society that won't let them marry or see each other, and a husband who, before he dies (also killed, accidentally, by the son), is just as cruel as ever, physically and psychologically.
He fetches no plot to kill anyone, although he does.This is, all the way through, excellent Zhang Yimou and excellent Gong Li. A must-watch for anyone who's a fan of either.