I decided to watch more films by Zhang Yimou. I saw coming home and I wanted to watch more of his films. I have seen Raise the Red Lantern five times. Tonight I watched Juo Dou for the first time and it did not disappoint. Li Gong is fantastic as the abused young wife of an old man who finds love with a younger man. There were several translations in the subtitles, so I was unsure of the exact relationship between Gong Li and her character's lover. Was he the old man's son? Nephew? I wasn't sure. Whatever he was it was scandalous. Zhang Yimou is a cinematographer by training. He had done several films as a cinematographer before he became a director. I really wanted to see his first directorial effort which was Red Sorghum, but I can't find a copy that is playable on a standard US DVD player. I'm going to order it anyway and see if it plays on my laptop.
Anyway in a book of interviews I'm reading about Zhang he says that he uses colors to portray his films. In Juo Dou the color red is very much on display. In the book, Yimou says in China the color red means passion. Before it became used by the Communists, red was a very popular color in China. In the film it is used at the same time as the first sexual encounter between Gong Li and her lover. Several sheets of cloth fall into a pool of water. The cloth is dyed red, the water is reflecting red, and the characters have a red reflection. It shows the enormous passion that the two lovers have for each other.
The passion plays out in their illicit affair time and again throughout the film. I was kept on edge to see what would happen when the two lovers went away from their baby boy for a tryst. The boy wonders back to the cheated on and bitter father who tries to drown the boy. He doesn't succeed and later on in the film he is even killed by the young boy who turns into a sociopath and kills his own father. It is a very dramatic scene. Gong Li is on the stairs screaming, her lover is dying, and their boy has a sadistic look on his face. The film ends with Gong Li burning everything to the ground; the fire reaching hire and more intense as she burns with it.
The setup is reached with the two lovers. The dramatic tension builds up to the death of the father. And the resolution happens when the boy finds the two lovers and kills his father.
I really enjoyed this film. Along with Raise the Red Lantern and the Story of Qui Jui it makes a trilogy starrring Gong Li and Zhang Yimou directing. When I was watching the end of Raise the Red Lantern, I thought back to when I was teaching English in Shanghai. I remember looking out of my window so excited with life. It was New Year's Holiday. I had a month off from teaching and plenty of money to go around Shanghai and Beijing. I remember Beijing was covered in snow when I got there. And it snowed again when I was leaving. I took the night train from Shanghai to Beijing. When I was on the train I had the weirdest dream, almost like a horror film. My old political science professor from undergrad decapitated my mother. It was a horrific dream that I'll never forget.
I stayed for four days in Beijing. I went to a hotel that my friend had recommended, but that I found unsuitable. I stayed at a hostel. It was adequate. Clean. Convenient to Beijing.
I remember the first day I was there. I went to the Forbidden City. I must have been so disoriented because I gave all the money in my wallet to a stranger! Luckily I got it back. I went into to the Mausoleum that contained Mao Zedong's body lying in state. It was strange to see him lying there dead. That day I toured the whole Forbidden City. It is an enormous place with several seperate large building and many more smaller ones. It took me the whole day just to get through it.
I guess all this is coming back because I watched the Last Emperor last night. Now I'm watching Zhang Yimou films. I don't know how many times I've seen the Last Emperor. I watched all the extras. One was about how Bertolucci found his way to East Asia and chose the story of Pu Yi to make a film about. The film shows how Bertolucci was looking for something outside of West Europe or North America. What he found was China. And the film is excellent no matter how many times I've seen it.
Ah China! When will I encounter you again. I see you on film and in books but it is no substitute for the real thing. Perhaps another walk around Chinatown? It's not the same. I hope to get back there someday.
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