Word: ju
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Sometimes people don't notice a good movie until somebody bad steps on it. To Western eyes, Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou might seem to be just another pretty retelling of a familiar triangle: a young woman, her elderly husband and her lover. Ju Dou plays like Phaedra mixed with The Postman Always Rings Twice -- until the woman bears a son who grows ripe with vengeance, and the movie becomes a bitter Bad Seed...
...after Ju Dou was nominated for a foreign-film Oscar last month, the Chinese authorities insisted that it be withdrawn from consideration. (The Motion Picture Academy rejected the demand.) Nor have the Chinese allowed the film to be shown publicly on the mainland, though it has played to acclaim elsewhere in the Far East and in Europe. Suddenly, this spare melodrama acquired political significance. Zhang, 40, whose previous film, Red Sorghum, made him the brightest light of emerging Chinese cinema, became both an international cause celebre and a man without a local audience. "To get Ju Dou past the censors...
...movie seems enshrouded by fate, so are its characters. Jinshan (Li Wei) runs a dye factory in northwestern China in the 1920s. This vile old man has taken a young wife, Ju Dou (Gong Li), who is made a slave to his viciousness. In bed he gags and harnesses her and rides her like a donkey, and the night bleeds with her shrieks. But the degradations stir Ju Dou's willfulness and sensuality. Now she undresses before the avid eyes of Tianqing (Li Baotian), her husband's adopted son. By abandoning herself to him, she hopes to liberate the captive...
...tanda or keh can be successful without a great deal of trust. Individual members may not be acquainted with one another, but they must all know and believe in the organizer, called a keh-ju in Korean or a chu-hui in Vietnamese. She covers any defaults. As compensation, the first pool is traditionally hers; in a bidding club, she receives it interest-free. Even so, the organizer benefits from strong community ties. When a new Chinese immigrant asks to join a hui, for example, "it does not take much effort to establish his life history," says Tom Tai, director...
...festival, the first large-scale event in the group's 12-year history, will feature traditional Korean dances, music and food, said Ju Ho Hahn '88-89, who organized the festival...