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Title: Ju Dou (1990)
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| Credited cast: | |||
| Gong Li | ... | Ju Dou | |
| Baotian Li | ... | Yang Tianqing | |
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Wei Li | ... | Yang Jinshan |
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Zhang Yi | ... | Yang Tianbai as a child |
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Ji-an Zheng | ... | Yang Tianbai as a youth |
| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Ma Chong | ||
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Zhijun Cong | ||
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Wu Fa | ||
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Zhaoji Jia | ||
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Jia Jin | ||
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Xingli Niu | ||
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Qianbin Yang | ... | (as Yang Qianbin) |
A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy. This tale of romantic and familial love in the face of unbreakable tradition is more universal than its setting. Written by Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca>
Gong Li is just about one of the most beautiful actresses in the world today. It is hard to believe that she has been acting for 20 years.
This is one of her earlier works, and it is an excellent example of her talent. It is also one of the early films for Yimou Zhang, who also directed Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower. He shows the promise of a great director in this film.
There is not much that is pleasant her. Ju Dou (Gong Li) is bought by an evil man who has beaten two wives to death for not bearing him a son. She is beaten mercilessly and he has constant sex with her to have a son.
The problem is not his wives, but him, and she has a son secretly with his nephew (Baotian Li). It saves her life, but matters continue to get more and more complicated until the final tragedy.
One of the really interesting features of the film is the Chinese funeral ritual.
The film is a great example of the early work of two great talents, but do not think that early means weak, as they were bother strong from the beginning.