Word: qiu
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This trials-of-Job saga has been told more powerfully in other brave Chinese films (Farewell My Concubine and The Blue Kite), and To Live lacks the surprise and sumptuousness of Zhang's The Story of Qiu Ju and Raise the Red Lantern. But the Chinese censors can still be shocked -- and vindictive. Zhang was recently forced, under the threat of never making another film in his homeland, to write an apology for wanting to promote To Live at Cannes. So one has to ask, How severe is the punishment for the crime of being an honest artist...
...remote northern province, the village chief (Lei Lao Sheng) has lost his temper and kicked a man (Liu Pei Qi) where it hurts. But Qiu Ju (Gong Li), the man's wife, is hurt mainly in the pride, and she resolves to get satisfaction for this slur. The local public-security bureau agent, Mr. Li (Ge Zhi Jun), a reasonable politician in a hopeless situation, tells the chief to pay Qiu Ju and her husband 200 yuan in reparation. When she comes to the chief for the payment, he strews 20 10-yuan notes on the ground...
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...