Rating: 
Summary: Ju Dou: Sight and Sound, but not so much Story
Review: The 1990 Chinese film Ju Dou is a cinematic celebration of the senses. It is a delight to the eye and the ear, and a weak story line is saved by the aesthetic artistry of the film's cinematography. Set in rural China in the 1920's, Ju Dou works as a system of recurrent images that take on greater significance as the film progresses. As the story opens on a long, deadpan shot of the sleeping town at dawn, with its mute white faces stacked one upon the other, the viewer has little awareness of how this same image at the end of the film will come to embody the cruelty and imprisonment of the rigid Chinese traditions to which the town abides.
The story focuses on Tianqing and Ju Dou, two victims of the dominance Master Yan. In the closed universe of his dye mill, Master Yan bullies his orphan nephew Tianqing with a constant barrage of insults, and tortures his purchased wife Ju Dou in hopes of producing from her a male heir. Brought together by their mutual suffering, Tianqing and Ju Dou begin an illicit love affair that culminates in the birth of Tianbai, though Master Yan, the town, and even Tianbai go on believing that Master Yan is the father. When Master Yan suffers a paralyzing injury, Ju Dou and Tianqing become free to love each other, though Master Yan continues even in his crippled state to fight against the couple's love and wins the affection of his "son" Tianbai, who in time takes on the menacing nature and reverence for tradition found in Master Yan. After the accidental death of Master Yan, the story concludes with Ju Dou and Tianqing's unsuccessful attempts to keep their love hidden from the town, before their final self-destruction.
The story, however, essentially serves only as a vehicle for the sensual feeling of the film. One never sympathizes with the couple's love, which seems pathetic, and the mute Tianbai possesses no real character. The grace of the film comes from its symbols and setting. Over and over, we see the cloth of the dye mill cascading through the air in slow motion as the sunlight streams down with it. This is beauty, and whenever something goes wrong, the cloth falls to the ground, and the final image of the film shows the cloths and the strikingly beautiful Ju Dou being consumed in flames.
This interplay of dark and light provides much of the story's dramatic effect. To consummate their love, Ju Dou and Tianqing are forced into the darkness of the mill's cellar, and when the town council discusses their suspicions of Ju Dou and Tianqing's infidelity to Master Yan, they stand in a frozen darkness that appears as a silhouette it is so lifeless. Similarly, it is only at night, creeping through the shadows of the dye mill, that Tianqing dares to come to the aid of the tortured Ju Dou.
Almost all of the film's plotlines depend upon such symbolic actions. (...) Tianbai drowns Tianqing at the end of the film in the same pool of red dye in which he watched Master Yan die. Ju Dou must poison her sexual organs to keep from having another child. While all these things happen physically, their symbolic implications for the film provide their significance.
The central concern for each of these symbols is how they comment on the idea of tradition that forces love into hiding. The ancient honor of heredity and the continuance of a family name enable Master Yan to practice his vicious cruelty and come to their full fruition in the inhuman gaze and presence of Tianbai. Tradition too makes Ju Dou a [prostitute] and Tianqing a forty-year-old child, and leaves death as the only means of escape for the unhappy lovers.
While the story and the message of Ju Dou failed to win me over, the film itself is beautiful, and the haunting sounds of children singing a nursery song juxtaposed on the face of Ju Dou in flames sends a shiver down your spine as the film comes to a close. Fortunately, the film is so replete with such moments that it overcomes an alienating story, and in the end Ju Dou works as a lovely and a touching film.
Rating: 
Summary: Love in the corners and everywhere.
Review: A beautiful film of colors, texture, and emotion. In an ancient textile factory that is airy yet confined, illumined but dark, the film captures love as primitive, as plain, as playful, as passionate, and as courageous. It makes one yearn for the day of love, for love's simple caresses and quiet whispers, and its commaraderie. How wonderous is the universality of love across place and time.
Rating: 
Summary: dark, but enjoyable
Review: Don't expect any happy endings, just beautiful scenery, tremendous acting, and a captivating storyline.
Rating: 
Summary: A Grest Movie, but a terrible DVD Version
Review: I am totally diappointed with this DVD re-production. The video and sund are the worst I have ever seen and listened. It seems that I am watching a movie from late 30s. I bought it, because it was reproduced by Pionner, the leading home electronic giant. However, they totoally screw up on this maganificent movie. There is not a single special feature on DVD, no trailer, no production notes, no nothing. Simply a scene selection, that is it. A totally diaster.
Rating:
Summary: Gong Li Descends from Heaven
Review: I own both the video and laserdisc versions and find myself watching this film once a year to gaze at the divine Gong Li and to follow her descent into lust and that ending, a James M. Cain rewrite of Aida. Ju Dou was the first Gong Li movie I saw nine years ago and have since collected her complete works in English. Well, almost. She has other pix not yet released here. And I believe that one (The Great Emperor's Concubine; not to be confused with any other concubine pic by her) was never released theatrically in the States. I haven't seen that one yet but it is listed among Gong Li's works on DVD. Ju Dou is my favorite Gong Li, she's at her most ravishing, although other pix put more demands on her acting---and sensuality! This is rewatchable in the same way that Jessica Lang's Dawn in the King Kong remake is rewatchable just for Jessica's great beauty as she sits in the ape's paw under the waterfall. I speak of women in the flower of their youth on tireless film. Who could ask for more?
Rating:
Summary: A tragic Chinese love story starring Gong Li
Review: I would hesitate to qualify "Ju Dou" as erotic in the traditional Western sense of the word, but that may just be because the tragedy of this tale overwhelms the sensuality. The title character, played by Gong Li, is married off to the brutal owner of a dye mill in rural China in the 1920's who treats his wife as badly as he treats his nephew. In their misery the pair turn to each other and when Ju Dou is pregnant and bears a son, they have to pretend the boy is her husband's. However, their hidden love is just a tragedy waiting to happen and even the death of the old man does not provide any real happiness. "Ju Dou" is essentially a horror film, whose middle act happens to be a romance. But the way the uncle treats his nephew and how the nephew and Ju Dou pay for their love, will stand out in your memory more than the supposedly erotic middle section.I am not sure I am willing to call "Ju Dou" director Yimou Zhang's best film (co-directed by Yang Fengliang), but like all of his films it is fascinating to watch. It does make the best use of the Technicolor equipment China bought from the U.S., especially as they work on dying all that fabric. The bright colors are truly spectacular. Although "Ju Dou" was the first Chinese film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it was banned in China by the government. The assumption is because since the film is about an impotent old man ruining the lives of those under him the people would see it as a metaphor for a nation ruled by a bunch of old men. This is one of those take it or leave it levels of symbolism since the film is obviously not didactic.
Rating:
Summary: A tragic Chinese love story starring Gong Li
Review: I would hesitate to qualify "Ju Dou" as erotic in the traditional Western sense of the word, but that may just be because the tragedy of this tale overwhelms the sensuality. The title character, played by Gong Li, is married off to the brutal owner of a dye mill in rural China in the 1920's who treats his wife as badly as he treats his nephew. In their misery the pair turn to each other and when Ju Dou is pregnant and bears a son, they have to pretend the boy is her husband's. However, their hidden love is just a tragedy waiting to happen and even the death of the old man does not provide any real happiness. "Ju Dou" is essentially a horror film, whose middle act happens to be a romance. But the way the uncle treats his nephew and how the nephew and Ju Dou pay for their love, will stand out in your memory more than the supposedly erotic middle section. I am not sure I am willing to call "Ju Dou" director Yimou Zhang's best film (co-directed by Yang Fengliang), but like all of his films it is fascinating to watch. It does make the best use of the Technicolor equipment China bought from the U.S., especially as they work on dying all that fabric. The bright colors are truly spectacular. Although "Ju Dou" was the first Chinese film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it was banned in China by the government. The assumption is because since the film is about an impotent old man ruining the lives of those under him the people would see it as a metaphor for a nation ruled by a bunch of old men. This is one of those take it or leave it levels of symbolism since the film is obviously not didactic.
Rating:
Summary: A tragic Chinese love story starring Gong Li
Review: I would hesitate to qualify "Ju Dou" as erotic in the traditional Western sense of the word, but that may just be because the tragedy of this tale overwhelms the sensuality. The title character, played by Gong Li, is married off to the brutal owner of a dye mill in rural China in the 1920's who treats his wife as badly as he treats his nephew. In their misery the pair turn to each other and when Ju Dou is pregnant and bears a son, they have to pretend the boy is her husband's. However, their hidden love is just a tragedy waiting to happen and even the death of the old man does not provide any real happiness. "Ju Dou" is essentially a horror film, whose middle act happens to be a romance. But the way the uncle treats his nephew and how the nephew and Ju Dou pay for their love, will stand out in your memory more than the supposedly erotic middle section. I am not sure I am willing to call "Ju Dou" director Yimou Zhang's best film (co-directed by Yang Fengliang), but like all of his films it is fascinating to watch. It does make the best use of the Technicolor equipment China bought from the U.S., especially as they work on dying all that fabric. The bright colors are truly spectacular. Although "Ju Dou" was the first Chinese film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it was banned in China by the government. The assumption is because since the film is about an impotent old man ruining the lives of those under him the people would see it as a metaphor for a nation ruled by a bunch of old men. This is one of those take it or leave it levels of symbolism since the film is obviously not didactic.
Rating:
Summary: Symbolic
Review: In the depths of the human soul, we want to be free. Free to choose who we will love, free to live in peace, free to follow our own dreams. In Ju Dou, everyone is trapped. This is part of the horror. Two people who are deeply "in love" are not free to love. They must love in secret, always fearing death if they are discovered. It is a completely opposite situation to Yumou Zhang's lush and beautiful "The Road Home." In this movie, the home the characters share is a Dye Mill where fabric almost seems symbolic of freedom and oppression. Red can symbolize passion, but it can also represent death. Red is also the color of good fortune. This movie is drenched in passion, the forbidden and the horror of not being free. The setting is rural China in the 1920s. When Ju Dou (Gong Li) is purchased by the aging textile-dying mill owner Yang Jin-shan (Li Wei), she seems to accept her fate until she realizes she will be treated no better than an animal. Her sadistic, impotent husband wants a child, yet all he does is tie up his wife and beat her mercilessly until she wishes she could die. She finds freedom in her love for the dye mill owner's nephew Yang Tian-qing (Li Bao-Tian) who seems to feel helpless to rescue her due to his strong family connections. When Ju Dou becomes pregnant with Yang Tian-qing's child, she reaches her most beautiful moment. The child turns out to be a main cause of the horror in this movie and both Ju Dou and Yang Tian-qing seem to have no real connection to the child they created in a moment of love. Ju Dou seems to be a rebellious character who we can sympathize with although she rejects the traditional conception of a virtuous wife and good mother. What is rather chilling is the fact of the child taking out revenge on his parents for a crime he committed. After Jin-shan is paralyzed the two lovers almost seem sadistic themselves as they seek revenge on Jin-shan and make him aware their relationship. He seeks his own revenge. More dramatic than erotic. More horrifying than beautiful. This is the second film the celebrated "fifth generation" filmmaker from China who trained as a cinematographer before becoming a director. "I regret that many good movies cannot be shown to the public in the mainland after a lot of money has been spent on them. These are the painstaking efforts and energies of cultural workers. I think those films should go to the public if they have been produced." - Gong Li The Chinese government routinely censors and bans films or plays. This film was banned in China because the leaders saw it as a metaphor for Chinese life and it clearly highlights the nature of exploitation and the victimization of women. Ju Dou is a romantic tragedy with moments of horror
set within a world of social control.
Rating:
Summary: JU DO ,MY FAVORITE
Review: JU DO ,MY LOVE ,I HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE 5 TIMES ,I NEVER SEE MOVIE LIKE THAT.THIS IS VERY GOOD,GREAT WORK.IT IS GOOD TO HAVE.
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