Directed by Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang, the 1990 tragedy "Ju Dou" follows a young woman sold as a wife to an abusive dye-mill owner in rural China, and the forbidden desire that develops between her and his adoptive nephew—a relationship that becomes an allegory for oppression, loyalty, and the costs of rigid social systems. Shot in three-strip Technicolor, it's a visually stunning film that helped put Zhang Yimou and Gong Li on the world stage and opened Chinese cinema to a global audience.
Andy Nelson and Pete Wright dig into Zhang's mastery of color as a thematic tool, the structural surprise of Liu Heng's screenplay, Gong Li's devastating performance, and why the best version of this film has been almost impossible to see in the US—as part of their Zhang Yimou series on The Next Reel on TruStory FM. Full episode resources and transcript here.
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