Ju Dou
Grade:
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Plot Summary:
Ju Dou, the young wife of an abusive merchant, starts having an affair with his nephew under her husband's nose. Much tragedy
and comedy among colored dyes ensue...
Opinion:
"Ju Dou" is one of director Zhang Yi-Mou's earlier and lesser-known films, and while not quite the same caliber as
"Raise the Red Lantern" or
"To Live", it is still a first-rate artistic and emotional drama with great use of color and symbolism.
The film's tagline ("An erotic tale of forbidden passion") sounds like some straight-to-video sex film you'd find on the back shelves at Blockbuster, but "Ju Dou" is in fact 'just' PG-13--and, in actuality, not very erotic. (‘eye of the beholder’, I know…) Sex (and 'forbidden passion') does play an integral part to the story, however "Ju Dou" is not nearly as simplistic and single-minded as the blurb might have you believe.
The movie concerns a rich fabric merchant and the unmarried nephew who works
for him. The merchant 'buys' and brings home a new, young wife who starts
having an affair with the nephew after the merchant beats her. Then she gets
pregnant...and then an accident occurs...and then--well, that's probably far
enough. It would take several paragraphs to explain the twists and turns of
the narrative and you'd be better off not knowing too much going in anyway.
As with "Lantern", part the movie's success is the unpredictability of the
things that happen (Anyone who thinks "The lovers continue their affair
until the end of the movie when the merchant husband finds out about it and
has them both killed. The End." is in for a surprise...)
Concerning as it does abuse, oppression, adultery and death, you'd understandably be thinking that "Ju Dou" is fairly stark and depressing. You'd be correct...to a point, but there are moments in "Ju Dou" that are actually quite funny--I even laughed out loud at some parts. (This does require a 'black' sense of humor, though...) The experience watching "Ju Dou" is somewhat akin to a roller-coaster ride--something shocking and horrifying would happen, then something funny, and then something shocking and horrifying again. I can't think of another movie within memory that has had caused such a disparate range of emotions within such a short period of time.
The subset of people who will enjoy "Ju Dou" is probably pretty small, but if you're one who does not shy away from bleak yet artistically and emotionally powerful movies (and don't mind reading subtitles), give this obscure film a try...
Content Analysis: (PG-13, 2-3-3-1 on the Baron's scale)
For a movie about abuse and adultery, the movie is (perhaps surprisingly) light on actual content, (This could have easily been a heavy R movie, of course) where the violence and sex is mostly
off-screen. (There's a lesson in that--a movie can be about 'adult' subjects without exceeding the PG-13 rating--and that certain events can be
contained within a movie without actually being
shown in the
movie) This is still an 'adult' movie, of course, and the PG-13 rating should definitely be taken seriously--although (for what it's worth) BYU International Cinema showed "Ju Dou" unedited many times in the 90's while I was there.
In-depth Analysis:
There are a number of symbolic parallels in "Ju Dou" which are interested to note: the more obvious one is the ironic difference between the sounds Tian-Qing has to listen to when his uncle and Ju-Dou are together, and--later--what sounds the uncle has to listen to when Tian-Qing and Ju-Dou are together. Others: the metallic tool that Tian-Qing slams into the staircase at the beginning shows up again in Tian-Bai's hand when he's chasing the
local guy around the neighborhood. Also, the way the uncle crawls down the stairs
before starting the fire is paralleled at the very end when Ju Dou crawls down the stairs in the same way.
What exactly did I find funny, you might ask? Well, the back-and-forth between the young couple, and the injured uncle had some funny moments--when it wasn't being shocking. I thought the sight of the uncle being kept in the bucket and hoisted up in the air was funny, as was the shot of the uncle holding the burning torch after his plan went awry (the look on his face says: "Who, me?") Again, this depends on your sense of humor...
The philosophy of the new couple taking their ‘revenge’ against the uncle through kindness is an interesting and effective one under the circumstances. Wouldn’t letting him live for the rest of his life as an ‘outsider’ while everyone
lives happily around them be just the perfect punishment for the torment he caused? (Certainly more effective than just killing him…) There’s probably a scriptural principle
at play here—although, of course, the two of them aren’t showing charity towards the uncle because they’ve
forgiven him, only as a means of revenge. (See Moroni 10:6—“except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing [and] it is not counted unto him for righteousness.”)
Does the movie condone adultery? In one sense, you can entirely understand why Ju Dou would be drawn to Tian-Qing and why the affair would have started
(although under the circumstances, it might have been just because he was
the only other male within reach in the household...), yet you could also conclude that the affair caused more problems than it solved. Tragedies are hard to make conclusive moral judgments on--sure, virtually all of the main characters participate in morally dubious behavior, but since nothing
good ever happens to tragic characters, it's hard to conclude that the movie would actually 'encourage' immoral behavior. I don't imagine any impressionable person would be watching this movie anyway...
