Ju Dou is as sumptuously cinematic as it is woefully fatalistic. The film is a tragedy, focusing on the characters of Ju Dou (Gong Li), a beautiful young woman who has been sold as a wife to Yang Jinshan (Li Wei), an old cloth dyer.
Ju Dou is a superbly torrid melodrama with similarities to The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946); the colours have a livid force and the storytelling holds you completely in its grip. The film was banned for a few years in China, but the ban has since been lifted. It was also the first Chinese film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1990.
Ju Dou is a superbly torrid melodrama with similarities to The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946); the colours have a livid force and the storytelling holds you completely in its grip. The film was banned for a few years in China, but the ban has since been lifted. It was also the first Chinese film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1990.