A Film by Zhang Yimou
- Presented by China Film Group and Beijing Film Studio

Directed by Fengliang Yang and Zhang Yimou
Written by: Heng Liu
Cinematographer: Yang Lun and Zhao Fei
Cast: Gong Li, Li Baotian, Li Wai, Zhang Yi, Ji-an Zheng
Mandarin Chinese/English Subtitles
Dolby Digital Stereo
Production Year: 1990
Running Time: 94 minutes

Winner
Best Foreign Feature Film, Amanda Awards, Norway, 1991
Best Foreign Film, Valladolid International Film Festival, 1991
Official Nomination:
1991 Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film
1991 Golden Palm, Cannes Film Festival, for Best Foreign Language Film

 Quotes / Reviews:
"Will remind you of a brilliance not seen in Hollywood Films since the Golden Age of the MGM Classics" - Roger Ebert Chicago Sun Times
"....dazzling...an intellectually and artistically brave film" - Caryn James NY Times
JU-DOU
Available for Home Video January 2006
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China in the 1920s

Jinshan (played by Li Wei) a wealthy and miserly old owner of a cloth-dyeing factory, purchases the lovely young bride Ju Dou (Gong Li). Sadistic and impotent, he has already beaten two previous wives to death for failing to bear him the son he desires. Ju Dou fails to become pregnant and is tortured as well.



 At the factory Jinshan berates Tianqing (Li Baotian) a distant nephew like a slave. Each night Tianqing hears the cries of the tormented Ju Dou. Watching as she bathes, he sees the scars left by her tormentor. Aware her admirer watches she tantalizes and seduces him when the old man is away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




Becoming pregnant, she realizes that Jinshan must believe the child is his. The child is born, but Jinshan is injured and is crippled. Jinshan, realizing the child is not his, grows to hate the young lovers, who now flaunt their relationship. The child Tianbai (played by) thinks Jinshan to be his father and Jinshan, now seeing his chance for revenge, raises him as his own. Tianbai now believing he is the son of a respected factory owner sees Tianqing as his social inferior. But through the taunts of the other village children he is driven to hate the man he believes to be his father's rival.
 
JU-DOU PICTURE GALLERY










 

 


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updated January 2008