Screening times:
Wednesday, November 12, 6:30 PM

Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang | China, Japan | 1990 | 95m
Mandarin with English subtitles

This is film that put director Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers, Hero) and star Gong Li (Raise The Red Lantern, Curse of The Golden Flower) on the international cinema map. It follows the young and beautiful Ju Dou as she is married off to an egregiously cruel, and also impotent, owner of a dye mill in the Chinese countryside in the early 20th century. When her husband’s nephew arrives on the scene and begins work at the mill, they fall for each other with lustful abandon.

Their impassioned affair soon leads to a son. After the clandestine couple convinces the despotic husband that he is the father, the boy is raised as his long-awaited heir. However the myriad complications of infidelity lead to a visceral and psychological melee between the lovers and her husband with explosively dramatic results.

With its stunning mise en scène and sumptuous use of colour, Ju Dou has earned a reputation as one of the greatest Chinese films ever made.

“The story is primal, and so are Zhang’s cinema strategies.” - Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

“The film appealed to me for two reasons. First, because of its unabashed, lurid melodrama, in which the days are filled with scheming and the nights with passion and violence. Second, because of its visual beauty.”- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE - BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - 1991
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - PALME D’OR NOMINEE - 1990
WINNER - GOLD HUGO - CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - 1990
WINNER - GOLDEN SPIKE - VALLADOLID INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - 1990

Tickets $12 ($11.40 cash at the door if available)