Before his foray into swordplay with Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower, filmmaker Zhang Yimou concentrated most his efforts on much smaller scale traditional Chinese dramas; and it is, in fact, here where a significant portion of his most impressive films can be found. Sadly no matter how hard it tries to pull on our emotions, Ju Dou does not come close to being one of those great films.
Starring a young Gong Li, the film tells the tale of a torrid love affair between Ju Dou, a physically abused wife of a controlling dye mill owner and Tianqing, the dye mill owner's overburdened nephew. After an accident leaves the dye mill owner completely paralyzed from the waist down, he is reduce to a mere observer, as free from his dominating ways the couple continues their sexual exploits sometimes even in his presence. Do to the sensitive content of the film, it faced issues of censorship on account of the Chinese Government and subsequently was not released until almost three years after its completion.
Past or present, Yimou's work has always remained visually striking, and Ju Dou is no different. The impressive pallet of yellows and reds found throughout the dye mill resemble the bold colours that Yimou would later incorporate into Hero, which in the eyes of this reviewer is his greatest cinematic achievement, and only second on his long list of accomplishments to his direction of the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing this past summer. However in Ju Dou, hidden underneath Yimou's characteristic first-class visuals, is an uncharacteristic third-rate story that implodes from a miserable final act where the nearly laughable melodramatics are layered on like butter on bread. Aside from Curse of the Golden Flower, this may very well be Yimou's worst film. ~ 5.0
Christopher Misch
Next Projection, Managing Editor and Contributor
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