Word: ju
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Chinese and Chinese American literature (e.g. Dream of the Red Chamber, Family, The Woman Warrior) and film (Ju Dou, Eat a Bowl of Tea) are full of descriptions of situations exactly like those in The Joy Luck Club. These situations existed in history and they exist now. They are alive and well in China and they are found throughout the Chinese diaspora. I am sure that some men do not relish their positions in the hierarchy and some may have actually rebelled, but the vast majority of us stayed quiet and reaped the benefits...
...when Rising Sun hit the screens. The Sean Connery thriller, which opened to yowls of bad publicity about its caustic view of Japan's business intentions in the U.S., has been a decent-size ($55 million) hit anyway. Get thee to an art house, where Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou and other sumptuous dramas directed by Zhang Yimou and starring glorious Gong Li have helped make China a new force in world cinema. Check out Hard Target, as millions of teenage boys already have. The director of this martial-arts pummeler is Hong Kong's John Woo -- the first...
Thus begins Qiu Ju's sad pilgrimage through the endless labyrinth of the Chinese bureaucracy. She petitions the People's District This and the Revolutionary Intermediate That. She seeks the help of a professional letter writer, who promises to destroy the village chief by writing a "merciless" letter. (He tells Qiu Ju he's written six of these; two of the recipients were subsequently shot, he says, and four got life sentences.) To impress the officials, Qiu Ju gives them fruit and buys an ill-fitting striped jacket that unfortunately makes her look even more like a hick chick from...
That face is worth saving, since the title role is played by the radiantly sullen Gong, who has starred in all of Zhang's features and who was declared best actress at last year's Venice Film Festival for this portrayal. As Qiu Ju or Ju Dou, as the bride in Red Sorghum or the balky mistress in Red Lantern, Gong has brought life and body to the director's ethereal cinema style. The Story of Qiu Ju relies even more on her personality than the team's earlier films. There Gong was swathed in luscious silks and period exoticism...
...film art, Qiu Ju is no match for the wondrous Red Lantern. But as a rare glimpse into the last communist monolith, it has the fascination of an individual's -- and a People's -- tragedy...