Slight Spoiler Warning in Effect

Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang’s Ju Dou is about a number of socio-political and cultural concerns but it works best as the vessel in the miserable canals of existential heartache exploring the nature of a vicious cycle and how cruelty and sexuality perpetuate the motion of tragic circular events. The picture’s story is constructed as such that the incidences are, on a whole, representative of a perfectly symmetrical sphere. Utilizing plot devices and contrivances, perhaps almost too conveniently, to design the circular entity there’s also great poetic storytelling for gawking, with the narrative guiding developments for 180 degree turns, and transitioned by acts of self-fulfilling prophecies. The two propelling substances for the picture’s inciting motion are cruelty and sexuality, essentially forming the two halves of its symmetrical visage. Because it is primarily humanistic the picture preoccupies itself with these primal instincts of man. There is such a tightly woven connection between cruelty and sexuality here that the primary characters capable of both, Ju Dou (Gong Li) and Tian-qing (Boation Li), are eventually swallowed up by cyclical events caused by such passionate dual expression.

Ju Dou would then seem to be about a linked dualism in human nature, the basic urge to be sexual and cruel simultaneously. That very premise is arguably a simplistic portrait: because of this perverse dualistic nature in man, man should be punished, hence the tragic conclusion. This may be true to a degree but the picture’s context and depth proves its weight, sufficiently with levels of humanistic dissection. The lines between sympathetic and unsympathetic depictions begin to blur as the second act gets underway, by creating a much more complex characterization of the initially-cartoonishly sadistic Jin-shan Yang (Wei Li). The character certainly has a predilection for causing pain and the impotence that’s rendered him sexually unfulfilled defines him, however, when he’s reduced to a bucket-cripple there are hints of his humanity. Jin-shan becomes emblematic of this instinctual bloodlust in man, arguably the dominant component of this basic duality.

Other prominent thematic implications of Ju Dou would be located in the historical context and setting of rural, traditionalist 1920s Chinese society and culture, connecting these norms and conventions with the idea of perpetuated circular misery. With abusive misogyny as much a part of conservative Chinese society the picture is as harshly reflective of an aggregate sum of oppressed womanhood. Whilst the barbed criticism of traditional values and antiquated thought, as manifested in Jin-shan as well as in the old villagers, is justly emphasized, on the other hand it witnesses the terribly reverberating effects of the harsh immorality that continue to exacerbate the progression of contemporary gender equalization. The closing of the vicious circular process is essentially the resulting reverberated effects of this potent paternalism, stubborn to update. With this idea, it is a requisite that Tian-qing’s fate be sealed by the wrath of an old man’s and an old society’s conservative persistence. His sexual expression has something to do with it as well, but at this point Tian-qing is mostly a victim of succumbing to the fragments of cruelty inherited from the broken shell of his wretched uncle.

If open sexuality, and in particular forbidden sexuality, is the apparent modernization in culture (as it is even perceivable in modern American society with conservative values conflicting with divergent sexual expression) then the picture seems to feel that cruelty is a staple of the old world, now a leftover. Tian-qing also reaches his eventual fate because he is an early subscriber to the Chinese culture’s revolutionizing times. Perhaps because it is viewed as a weakness or unspoken natural perversion but sexual indulgence and traditionalism don’t mix well, and the sexual naivete (because of their environment) of both Tian-qing and Ju Dou acts as a catalyst to inciting the cycle’s motion.

In essence, the circular process is initiated by the cruel, antediluvian behavior of Jin-shan perpetrated against Ju Dou because it is the only form of pleasure he can derive from, and she is also a sexually charged organism that threatens a modernization terribly different from the traditionalist vision of reigning cruelty that Jin-shan hopes for in the heir he cannot create. Tian-qing enters the equation and with him Ju Dou manages to embark on a 180 degree path as their youthful sexual expression temporarily liberates them from decrepit ideas of sadism. However, the lingering shadow of ancient cruelty hangs over the sexual paradise and trickles into the behavior of the lovers as they begin to derive pleasure from both intimate sexual gratification and a slight sadism. By keeping dangerous old world elements around for the indulgent purposes of exacting punishment and elongating revenge they basically shoot themselves in the foot, though they did that pretty much from the get-go...but this is cultural progress. This act maneuvers the trajectory back around towards the starting point of cruelty, which is eventually completed in the nurturing of Ju Dou and Tian-qing’s barbaric and murderous son, Tian-bai (Ji-an Zheng).

The process involves a number of elements intrinsic to primeval human indulgences: responsibility, consequence, revenge and punishment. The Oedipal complexities of both Tian-qing and Jin-shan’s relationship as well as Tian-qing amd Tian-bai’s measure the lengths of responsibility and consequence. In the first relationship, fatherhood is reviled but still given a degree of loyalty because of an understanding of moral responsibility. In the latter, patriarchal respect is absent and the consequences of the Oedipal Complex surface. In terms of revenge and punishment , the picture has garnered Shakespearean comparisons, and for good reason, as Ju Dou embodies a subtler Lady MacBethian manipulator. Like the Bard’s tragedies, the hubris of the manipulator, even if it stems from justified revenge, receives punishment for indulging in selfishness.

Ju Dou’s visual aesthetic is exemplary because it explores Zhang Yimou’s penchant for the visual poetry of flowing drapery and color-coordinated tableaux’s to further the resonating depth and the thematic importance with stylistic enhancements. The communicative artistry illustrates with notable ingenuity the points of passionate sexual vibrancy as well as heated wet brutality. Ju Dou’s finely poised mise-en-sc ne magnificently transmits cruelty and sexuality into a tumultuous relationship of endless circular existence. It’s also wrapped in a relationship between the old and the young, the tenderly detrimental nature of their opposing liberalism and conservatism. For the picture, neither of those basic human elements can really exist without one affecting the other negatively, which means they can manage to co-exist but as one perfectly circular process of tragedy.

(93/100)

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older