Ju Dou

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S R I saw it since it was on the NYT 1000 movies list. It was a sad tragedy about a cloth maker who buys a wife and can't have children with her. She turns to the servant who then has her child, who refuses to recognize him and it ends in futile tragedy. SLC DVD. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/22/25 Full Review Yellowfur D Whether it is a village or a small town, criticism and tragedy have been written. I saw resistance, and actually I saw true feelings, without words, burning like wildfire. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 10/07/23 Full Review peter w Zhang Yimou brings his unfailing aestheticism to a challenging theme. Sometimes beauty can divert attention away from problematic themes but he manages to draw the audience in to the stark issues of inequality and oppression. He doesn't romanticize power or its lack; instead, every scene intensifies the anguish that it creates. Even when he captures brief moments of happiness or relief it serves as a contrast to the tragedy that follows. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review william d Gong Li is her usual brilliant self, but the story just isn't as compelling as the movie's pretensions suggest. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Ju Dou is a romantic drama that feels like a Shakespearean play. The twists and turns of this story are fascinating and I loved how it messed with me emotionally. It had you rooting for certain people, but then there's a turn where suddenly you start to question if they've gone too far, but later it brings you back onto their side. The visuals are stunning, particularly the vibrant colors of all the fabric in the film. It looks beautiful despite the horrible quality of the DVD transfer that is currently available in the US. I thought the movie was a bit slow at the beginning and took quite some time before it got going, but once the relationships were all established it became much more interesting. I also think there are moments in the film where it indulges a little too heartily in melodrama. The plot certainly warrants some strong reactions from the characters, but it isn't played all that well by the actors. However, the rest of the performances were solid, and I felt like the personalities of the characters were all well-defined. I didn't love Ju Dou, because it is a lot of heavy drama without much levity, but I think it is a good movie that I would gladly watch again or recommend to others. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member "Ju Dou" tells the story of love between two people at the mercy of a cruel uncle and husband. Yang Tianqing (Li Baotian) is working for his uncle Yang Jinshan (Li Wei) at his textile mill where he dyes fabric. Tianqing learns that his uncle has purchased a new wife, this is his third, he had beat the other two to death for not being able to produce him a boy. It's no fault of these women, he's impotent and takes this anger out on these women. The new wife, and the new aunt to Tianqing, is a beautiful young woman named Ju Dou (Li Gong). Tiaqing becomes smitten with her, spying on her as she undresses and bathes. Soon, the two become lovers and she becomes pregnant with his son. Jinshan believes the kid is his until he becomes paralyzed and is forced to rely upon the two to take care of him. After several failed attempts at trying to kill the kid, he is put in a barrell high above the ground. He eventually comes to love the kid as his son when the kid accidentily refers to him as father setting about a chain of events that will end tragic. Beautifully filmed by Zhang Yimou on three-strip Technicolor. It has an aged feeling in it's beauty, but magnificently show it's yellows, golds and reds in such exuberance. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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