Ju Dou (1990) on Netflix
In rural China, Ju Dou is sold as a wife to Yang Jinshan, a cruel dye mill owner. His adopted nephew Yang Tianqing returns and becomes infatuated with her.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.6/109,764 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Yang Tianqing returns from a journey selling silk for his adopted uncle, Yang Jinshan, a cruel cloth dyer in rural China. Jinshan has beaten two previous wives to death for failing to bear him a son, and he is impotent. A fired worker tells Tianqing that Jinshan has a new wife, Ju Dou. When Tianqing meets her, he becomes infatuated. At night Jinshan tortures her. Tianqing discovers where Ju Dou bathes and secretly observes her; she is aware of his presence. Ju Dou reveals her bruises and weeps, and Tianqing begins to see her as a person rather than an object of desire. Their passion becomes uncontrollable, and they start a sexual relationship.
Cast
- Ji-an Zhengas Yang Tianbai as a youth
- Ma Chong
- Jia Jin
- Yang Qianbin
- Wu Bin
Show all 14 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ju Dou (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After China banned Ju Dou, the government tried to withdraw it from the Academy Awards; when the Academy refused, Acting Minister of Culture He Jingzhi made two Chinese Film Bureau officials, including its chief Teng Jinxian, write self-criticisms for submitting the film and drawing worldwide attention to it.
- Ju Dou was banned in China on its release, and the ban was only lifted in July 1992, after Li Ruihuan viewed the film and reversed it.
- Ju Dou became the first Chinese film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a landmark for Chinese cinema.
- Ju Dou was produced using the vivid Technicolor process, long after that process had been abandoned in the United States.
- In the original novel behind the film, Tianqing is Jinshan's biological nephew and the affair is a taboo of affinity; the filmmakers cut the incestuous element, making the two unrelated by blood.
