My parents had cable off-and-on in my household. At one point, the cable became too expensive, and we stopped. We picked it up again after a while, and stopped again when the cable became too much. Now, with digital cable forcing everyone to pay for stuff they used to get for free, we have cable again. With the glut of crap on specially generalized cable television (Toddlers & Tiaras, Crocosaurus, all the no-talent shows, occult-themed shows, police procedural shows, etc.), it will never be like it was.
Back then, we didn't have to worry about having to subscribe to a specific channel to get out foreign movies: we simply were surprised. It was like this in my high school years when I watched the movie that started my love for Asian cinema: Ju Dou.
Ju Dou was like nothing I had seen before in American film: the new land, the strange people and culture (granted, the only time I had dealt with Asian people and culture was either at a restaurant or a kung-fu movie), the language, and the colors. OH GOD THE COLORS. The colors weren't part of some forced hallucination or a drug-related trip on my part. It was simply the way that director Yimou Zhang was able to not only give the set designer and cinematographer the instructions to make the movie visually appealing, but the tension between the characters was believable and tangible. It would set the rule for me in the future that whenever I watch an Asian film, check if Li Gong is in it first.
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| "Dear Penthouse Forum..." |
The movie is set in early 20th Century China, when the life of Ju Dou (played by Li Gong) is disrupted by her marriage to Old Yang (actor Wei Li) who runs a dye mill. He paid a handsome sum for such a beautiful bride, so she had better produce him an heir--which she cannot because the old man is sterile. He treats her horribly in response (an understatement, to say the least) and has no idea that someone has else has had their eye on her, but can't act on it.
Tianqing (Baotian Li) is Old Yang's younger relative, who lives and works at the mill as Yang's ward. He is also mistreated to a degree. He takes pity on the woman who is now legally his aunt. At first, their relationship is deeply appalling... but you come to understand that their common ground is their hatred of Old Yang. He is wholly deserving of this hatred, which Ju Dou and Tianqing transform into lust and love. Nature takes its course under the influence of human intervention, and the story seems as if it will develop into an ending scenario that will be considered acceptable. That's when the film becomes an experience in truly deep heartbreak. The dynamic changes so hard and fast, you can only stay riveted to your seat to see how it all turns out.
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| OH GOD THE COLORS, MAN |
And so it went, my first foreign film viewing.
This led to me watching not only foreign films with Li Gong in it (Curse of the Golden Flower, Raise the Red Lantern), but also other foreign fare (Luc Besson's ANGEL-A, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor [yes, it counts], Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Juzo Itami's Tampopo), not to mention domestic productions with Asian themes (Memoirs of a Geisha, Snow Falling on Cedars). I can say without any confusion that this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. This is mostly due to my eyes being opened--not to the flare of an action movie's explosion, the shine of a silver sci-fi rocket or to the horrors of a slasher film--but to the greater expanse of world film and filmmakers outside of America and kung-fu movies. To you and all those like you, director Zhang, I thank you.
