Ju Dou by Zhang Yimou
Ju Dou is among remarkable films that is woman-centered created by Zhang Yimou. The film is about the sadness and brutality tale of Chinese women in reality. The film was recognized internationally due to its cinematic expression. The story of the film dates back in the 1920s and rotates around the cruelty theme, which is portrayed by various characters in the movie. Ju Dou is presented by the cloth-dyeing mill owner, Yang Jinshan as a wife.
Jinshan gets desperate of an heir and decides to lord cruelly Ju Dou’s nephew, Tianqing and Ju Dou. The result is that the two suffer due to an affair that involves them. Ju Dou gets a child that everyone thinks is from Jinshan. The child is crippled from the waist downwards, and Jinshan navigates around by the use of a barrel. The susceptibility forces both of them to go on with their romance life, which is risky since the other member of the house become more profound. They continue with the behavior even after the death of Jinshan, and later they are angrier.
The song sung by the children can be used, sum up, the whole film. The message in the movie illustrates how some of the characters in the film were faced unlucky fates describing the flow of the film in general. An example of harsh treatment portraying the central theme, which is cruelty, is where Jinshan abuses Ju Dou to a point where she even cries. This is also seen within their dialogue, which involves violence. In one of their dialogue lines, Jinshan says, “When I buy an animal, I treat it as I wish. And you’re no better than an animal”. The scene clearly shows how Jinshan was harsh and abusive.
Even at such a scene, the audience did not feel delayed to disgust for Jinshan or pity for Ju Dou. This also included the climax of the film when Tianqing made love with his aunt after giving in to his sexual frustration. The exceptions in the modest film incline are the length of clothes that were used, which narrated the story in a hidden manner. Yang, a tradition casualty, is represented as fearful, passive, and with no backbone. He is unable to reconcile with his sadistic and cruel uncle because he has no ability at the moment. He could not also give in to Ju Dou’s escape pleas and murder since the only thing he needed was compromise comfort. He could alternatively endure the worrying guilt instead of breaking the custom chains.
Jinshan is more than an antagonist and also a victim of his own. Dark for what it’s worth, given the Chinese scene of the woman-centric foundation, it isn’t difficult to envision Jinshan pushed to hyper brutality in his miserable for a beneficiary to carry on the Yang family name. The necessity of maintaining and continuing with the original name of the family was illustrated several. In front of an altar, Jinshan criticizes the dishonor of Tianqing and Ju Dou making love. In contrast, Jinshan during Tianbai’s 3rd birthday, he raises his head in front of the elders conceitedly to uphold the family’s honor. The women are oppressed and abused in society, and instead of the behavior being condemned, it is tolerated.
Ju Duo decides to open up about the human aspect of the community, which is no exclusive. This imposes a query on how long the behavior should be tolerated in the community regardless of it being unworthy among other community members in the case of the women. She gives a peek of the world, which she describes herself as being a foreigner even in the middle of her Asian neighbors. There has been interdependence created between the locals and the rest of the people who inhabit an area. The result is that the locals are oppressed to align the other group, which is the majority. The reason is that the local is not able to meet international standards.
The director of the film believed that it was relevant to cast such a film, which is still applicable to recent times. Some people were afraid to see the movie, which seemed locals influenced the outside world. This was because of the global-local relationship. The film was seen to be local and had no global aspect, according to those who did not know the influence of the film relevant to the world community. This is an oppression that is formed due to cultural differences by other people who view themselves as unique and cannot learn anything from different cultures of the world.
In the film, the female characters are oppressed, and it is evident through its analysis. In the history of Chinese society, they have been male-controlled, and that’s the reason why the female characters are oppressed at any instance to keep the norm. The culture even entailed the steps of subordination in women. Ju Dou was oppressed more since she could not bear a child. Oppression occurred because of the cultural norms rather than because of the structure.