Review:

"Ju Dou" is notorious for being controversial in its native country. The only Chinese film ever nominated for an Academy Award, "Ju Dou" was denounced by the government, which saw it as a none-too-subtle jab at the "old men" who run the country in its portrayal of an abusive dye-mill owner who treats the wife he has purchased, as he puts it himself, "like an animal."

China's elder statesmen were probably also not too thrilled with the title character, "Ju Dou," the wife who becomes more tempestuous, aggressive and obstinate as the years pass, an obvious reaction to the oppression women have suffered in Chinese society.

Sex, it is said, is the only luxury with which the poor are as well supplied as the rich. But within the rigid Chinese feudal society depicted by "Ju Dou," that is not quite the case. The movie, which is set in the 1920s but might as well be set a century earlier, tells the story of a wealthy old textile man who marries a juicy young bride and hires a desperate young nephew and enslaves both of them with his cruel will.

The Chinese Oscar nominee, "Ju Dou," is as sumptuously cinematic as it is woefully fatalistic, an Oedipal fable of an abusive husband, his luscious new bride and the adopted nephew who falls in love with her. Directed by Zhang Yimou, a maverick of China's "new wave," this disturbing tragedy is as unexpectedly lurid in its way as "Blue Velvet." Battery, adultery, pyromania, patricide and manslaughter are but a few of its dramatic developments.

Synopsis: In 1920s China, an old man, the owner of a dye factory, buys a beautiful young wife. He beats her every night because she has not produced children, an heir. Meanwhile, his young wife and his (adopted) son have an affair, which results in the birth of a child. A tale of adultery, revenge, and murder. Even though it has superb photography and excellent acting, the story falls flat and the film is primarily a mediocre melodrama.

Actor/Actress Info: