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Review: Ju Dou (菊豆) (1990)
This movie felt very much like Zhang Yimou's work right from the get go. I was very much reminded of Raise the Red Lantern, which only came out a year after this one.
The story was simple in its events and its characters, but of course invoked a lot of thought and discussion. And of course, the film looked really good.
I would recommend this movie for those who are interested in what Zhang Yimou is about, or if they are already fans of his other works.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie was named after Ju Dou, one of the main characters of the movies, though I wouldn't say that she was necessarily THE main character of the movie.
Yang Jinshan was a cloth dyer, a cruel old man. He had an adoptive nephew called Yang Tianqing. I read on the Wikipedia page that in the original book, Tianqing was his biological nephew. I think this difference did have an impact on the message of the story but I'll talk about that later.
Jinshan "bought" a wife, Ju Dou. He was cruel to her as well, and he desperately wanted a son. I believe Jinshan was actually impotent, but I don't remember how this was confirmed, or if it was just implied.
Ju Dou and Tianqing bonded and had an affair resulting in Ju Dou's pregnancy, and later, a son, Yang Tianbai. Soon after, Yang Jinshan had a stroke and lost control of the bottom half of his body. After, he became very reliant on Ju Dou and Tianqing, who then intimidated and mocked him, revealing the truth to him that he'd been cuckolded.
For a period of time, things were perfect for Ju Dou and Tianqing, as they could finally get a leg up on the abusive Jinshan. However, their one worry was that Tianbai would never talk or smile.
Jinshan grew very hateful, wanting to kill Ju Dou and Tianbai. In one instance, he was about to kill Tianbai, when Tianbai suddenly called him father. Jinshan then instructed Tianbai to call Tianqing his brother (whereas Ju Dou and Tianqing were trying to get him to call Tianqing father). Thus, Ju Dou and Tianqing couldn't be as obvious and open as they were before about their romantic relationship.
One time, when Jinshan and Tianbai were playing, Jinshan fell into a pool of dye and drowned. When Ju Dou returned, he'd already died. This was a point of tension betwee Tianqing and Ju Dou because Tianqing thought that Ju Dou had killed Jinshan, who after all did raise Tianqing.
Ju Dou and Tianqing lived apart, as that was the rule set out by the family elders. Tianbai grew into a quiet and violent teenager. He didn't like Tianqing, and catching him sitting closely or hugging his mom didn't help.
Ju Dou and Tianqing would continue to see each other, though one time, they were caught by a villager (who couldn't see who the man was), which induced rage in Tianbai.
By the end of the movie, Ju Dou and Tianqing had their tryst in a cellar, and passed out due to lack of air. They were found by Tianbai. Tianbai brought his mother back to her room, but he threw Tianqing into a pool of dye, presumably forcing him to drown.
At the very end of the movie, Ju Dou burned down the entire house.
It was a very thoughtful story, typical of what Zhang Yimou would choose for his earlier days. I will cover the story themes below.
Production
The film looked beautiful, as I would expect even from Zhang Yimou's earlier movies. The long clothes of dye were a visual motif that made me think of his later movies, including Hero.
The scenery and the buildings were beautiful as well. This was partly due to the selection of the location, which consisted of older more traditional looking buildings. But the way that Zhang Yimou caught all of these buildings and structures was interesting too. I loved the shots when we would see all of the roofs of the town together.
But I also liked how Zhang Yimou caught the dying equipment and scaffolding on screen. Because the cloth was often very long, Zhang Yimou would find a way to emphasize the length and height of the dyed cloth. I thought it was interesting that he would sometimes use unusual angles to capture that length. Of course, the lengths of cloths were also used as backdrops for conversations and such. And the wheel used for dying was very interesting too.
Characters
Ju Dou
Ju Dou was our titular character, the person introduced into this nuclear Yang family that kicked off the situation.
She was Jinshan's third wife, and noticeably younger than him, much closer in age to Jinshan's nephew Tianqing. She was abused by Jinshan, sexually and physically, and she hated it. Though she knew that Tianqing was spying on her when she bathed, she later allowed it to happen, hoping that she could find a person who could sympathize with her pain.
Later on, she came on to Tianqing, and they began an affair. I did think this was sudden, but I guess it makes sense. The two of them were isolated in an abusive environment. Having recently read Flowers in the Attic, a big theme there was how people may turn to incest when isolated in desperate situations, and something similar happened here, though perhaps not quite as scandalous. It would have been a tad more scandalous of Tianqing was Jinshan's biological nephew as well.
Anyway, Ju Dou hated Jinshan for obvious reasons, but her lover could not as Jinshan did technically raise him. So whereas Ju Dou was waiting for Jinshan to die, Tianqing could not allow that to happen out of filial piety.
So when Jinshan died via drowning, Tianqing suspected her. It was a point of disagreement between them, but I think it was something that Tianqing had only thought of in the heat of the moment. Otherwise, I did think that they were still in love the whole time.
Ju Dou's dream was probably for her, Tianqing, and Tianbai, to live happily as a family of three. But for Tianqing and Tianbai, they were never going to let that happen, for reasons I will cover below.
At the end of the movie, Ju Dou burned the whole house down. I assume that this was because Tianqing had drowned. And since she had nothing else to live for, she might as well burn down the place that gave her so much misery.
Ju Dou barely had a relationship with her son in the traditional sense. Tianbai did seem to consider her important, and he would never hurt her. However, they didn't really have a loving relationship. Tianbai never talked. Ju Dou seemed more like a caregiver than a mother to him. And perhaps ther lack of connection to her son was another reason that she didn't have anything else left to live for on this earth.
I do wonder if other people might see Ju Dou as a vixen character, coming into this family and causing a mess. She did technically come on to Tianqing, but things aren't that simple. She was being abused and she needed help. In addition, if she hadn't slept with Tianqing, she wouldn't have gotten pregnant, and Jinshan would have beaten her to death for not providing a son to him again. So for Ju Dou, yes, she did technically commit incest which is technically bad, but her other option was certain death.
Yang Jinshan
Jinshan was the abusive head of the family. Right from the beginning, we saw that he was cruel. He did not value personal relationships, immediately firing his employee after Tianqing returned, but also not being kind or welcoming to Tianqing.
While the neighbours spoke highly of Tianqing, Jinshan considered him a burden, and felt that Tianqing was indebted to him. Jinshan was also violent to Ju Dou, tying her up and presumably raping her.
After he suffered his stroke, Tianqing and Ju Dou spent more time together. Jinshan discovered their affair, and when he did, Tianqing and Ju Dou revealed that he was not the father of Tianbai. From then on, Tianqing and Ju Dou technically took care of Jinshan, but in a sort of mocking way, especially Ju Dou. She would go through the motions of providing for him, but by no means was she going to do anything more.
Jinshan had attempted to kill Ju Dou and Tianbai once, but it hadn't worked. The second time he tried to kill Tianbai, Tianbai for some reason recognized him as his father. From then on, Jinshan used Tianbai as a psychological weapon against Ju Dou and Tianbai, keeping them in their place.
Jinshan fell into a pool of dye while with Tianbai. Tianbai watched as he drowned to death and laughed.
Jinshan of course displayed some very traditionally toxic masculine qualities, only seeing women as breeding machines, and showing zero love to an adopted nephew. The affair between his wife and adopted nephew that resulted in a son that he did not have was a huge slap across his face. So using that son to control the two and keep them apart was his ultimate revenge.
I can't say for sure why Tianbai recognized Jinshan, but I don't think it was for love. Ju Dou and Tianqing mentioned that Tianbai never called Tianqing father or smiled. Jinshan was the person who could get Tianbai to call him father, and he was the person who made him laugh (when he was drowning). Jinshan seemed to stimulate Tianbai's emotions a certain way, but it definitely wasn't out of love.
Yang Tianqing
Tianqing was Jinshan's adopted nephew. He was not treated well by Jinshan. Jinshan was cold to him, treating him much more like an employee than someone he raised. But Tianqing was loyal to him.
So he did not share the same vitriol to Jinshan as Ju Dou did. He wanted Jinshan out of their way so that they could be happy together, but he would never kill him. That's why he went out into the mountains to find Jinshan and bring him back, rather than letting him starve and die in the mountains. That's why he couldn't strangle him to death when Ju Dou told him to. And that's why he suspected Ju Dou of foul play when she found Jinshan dead.
Because he grew up with the Yang family, Tianqing did have some loyalty to the Yang family rules. He and Ju Dou abided by the rules to live apart. As well, he was reluctant to run away with Ju Dou and Tianbai because Tianbai was technically the sole remaining scion of the Yang family. Ju Dou did NOT care about this, which made sense because women always got the short end of the stick when it came to family hierarchies. And this family had never treated her well, nor was she born to it. Her attachment to the Yang family was nonexistent, whereas for Tianqing, it was almost a bit of Stockholm Syndrome.
For that reason, Tianqing was a bit subservient, which annoyed Ju Dou. He was not brave enough to stand up to the rules. He would play by them, living as the brother of Tianbai instead of his father, accepting whatever ills befell him.
In the end, he was caught by Tianbai with his mother and thrown in the pool of dye, drowning in a similar way to his adopted uncle, but this time on purpose. The two men who slept with Ju Dou died this why, directly or indirectly by Tianbai's hand. And Tianqing was the only person keeping Ju Dou sane, so when he died, Ju Dou had no other reason to go on.
Yang Tianbai
Tianbai was the biological son of Tianqing and Ju Dou. I guess we're supposed to accept that Jinshan was impotent.
Anyway, Tianbai was always a bit distant from his parents. They were worried about his anti-social behaviour.
For whatever reason, he recognized Jinshan as his father. Was it karma? What about Jinshan made Tianbai tick? What made him listen to him? That was what made me suspect if Tianbai was actually Jinshan's biological son. He also seemed to inherit some cruel behaviours from him too, not being able to resolve things peacefully and quietly.
But I don't want to misinterpret his reaction to Jinshan as love. I don't think it was love. He didn't seem happy amid all of the celebrations for him (that were a result of him being Jinshan's son).
His relationshp with his mother was also very strange. I was surprised that he was protective of her, going after anybody who ruined her reputation, and carrying her to her bed after he found her in the cellar. But I struggle to say that he loved her. Maybe that was his way of showing love, in the simplest way possible, by providing protection.
Tianbai really didn't like his mom's close relationship with Tianqing. He was always very upset whenever Tianqing came by. Maybe it was that Tianqing's relationship to his mother ruined her reputation.
Tianbai is a confusing character for me, probably because he never spoke, and we could never really tell what he was thinking about.
Themes
Abuse
As said above, abuse tends to push people together regardless of their familiar relations. Whether or not Tianqing was Jinshan's biological nephew, the abuse was so strong that Ju Dou would have sought comfort with Tianqing regardless. She just wanted someone to care, someone to know. And Tianqing was literally the only other person in the house, seeing as how Jinshan would fire anyone once Tianqing returned (so as only to have to pay one worker at a time, or not at all if it was Tianqing).
So in a similar situation as Flowers in the Attic, Jinshan encouraged this incest because he was so strict about family values, abut needing his wife to fulfill her womanly duties and provide him with a son.
Family and marriage
Ju Dou's attachment to the Yang family was very different from Tianqing's. If Tianqing was an adopted nephew, that meant that Jinshan had taken him into his home and raised him (presumably from childhood). I can see why Tianqing would feel loyal and indebted to Jinshan, regardless of how cruel he was.
As for Ju Dou, she was literally bought by Yang Jinshan in order to be a babymaker for him. She had nothing to be thankful for because being abused at the Yang family was likely worse than just staying at home.
For Tianqing, he had to juggle his adopted uncle and his lover. Ju Dou felt let down because Tianqing was her most important person in the world, her only person, while Tianqing could not say the same.
The thing is, the way that family used to work was definitely misogynistic. Women would have to leave their families to marry into another, and they would become the property of the family they married into. Why would they feel any loyalty?
Meanwhile, lineages, inheritances, names, all of that prestige was given only to men. Even for Tianqing, who was not a biological nephew, at least he got his name in the ancestral geneology, having the "Tian" character in his name.
Women couldn't afford to get attached to families, and thus prioritized people. That was why she always wanted to run away with Tianqing and Tianbai. Whereas for Tianqing, he felt like he was letting down the Yang family if he did, as he would take away their only heir, even if he knew that he wasn't the biological heir.
Karma
Not that I think that Ju Dou and Tianqing's affair wasn't reasonable, but I keep wondering why Tianbai recognized Jinshan as his father. I wondered if it was a karma thing, because Ju Dou and Tianqing had an improper relationship.
Overall
Good movie. It very much reflected Zhang Yimou's early direction style, and the story was also very in line with the sort of thing he would direct. The movie was simple, but made me think.
The story was simple in its events and its characters, but of course invoked a lot of thought and discussion. And of course, the film looked really good.
I would recommend this movie for those who are interested in what Zhang Yimou is about, or if they are already fans of his other works.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie was named after Ju Dou, one of the main characters of the movies, though I wouldn't say that she was necessarily THE main character of the movie.
Yang Jinshan was a cloth dyer, a cruel old man. He had an adoptive nephew called Yang Tianqing. I read on the Wikipedia page that in the original book, Tianqing was his biological nephew. I think this difference did have an impact on the message of the story but I'll talk about that later.
Jinshan "bought" a wife, Ju Dou. He was cruel to her as well, and he desperately wanted a son. I believe Jinshan was actually impotent, but I don't remember how this was confirmed, or if it was just implied.
Ju Dou and Tianqing bonded and had an affair resulting in Ju Dou's pregnancy, and later, a son, Yang Tianbai. Soon after, Yang Jinshan had a stroke and lost control of the bottom half of his body. After, he became very reliant on Ju Dou and Tianqing, who then intimidated and mocked him, revealing the truth to him that he'd been cuckolded.
For a period of time, things were perfect for Ju Dou and Tianqing, as they could finally get a leg up on the abusive Jinshan. However, their one worry was that Tianbai would never talk or smile.
Jinshan grew very hateful, wanting to kill Ju Dou and Tianbai. In one instance, he was about to kill Tianbai, when Tianbai suddenly called him father. Jinshan then instructed Tianbai to call Tianqing his brother (whereas Ju Dou and Tianqing were trying to get him to call Tianqing father). Thus, Ju Dou and Tianqing couldn't be as obvious and open as they were before about their romantic relationship.
One time, when Jinshan and Tianbai were playing, Jinshan fell into a pool of dye and drowned. When Ju Dou returned, he'd already died. This was a point of tension betwee Tianqing and Ju Dou because Tianqing thought that Ju Dou had killed Jinshan, who after all did raise Tianqing.
Ju Dou and Tianqing lived apart, as that was the rule set out by the family elders. Tianbai grew into a quiet and violent teenager. He didn't like Tianqing, and catching him sitting closely or hugging his mom didn't help.
Ju Dou and Tianqing would continue to see each other, though one time, they were caught by a villager (who couldn't see who the man was), which induced rage in Tianbai.
By the end of the movie, Ju Dou and Tianqing had their tryst in a cellar, and passed out due to lack of air. They were found by Tianbai. Tianbai brought his mother back to her room, but he threw Tianqing into a pool of dye, presumably forcing him to drown.
At the very end of the movie, Ju Dou burned down the entire house.
It was a very thoughtful story, typical of what Zhang Yimou would choose for his earlier days. I will cover the story themes below.
Production
The film looked beautiful, as I would expect even from Zhang Yimou's earlier movies. The long clothes of dye were a visual motif that made me think of his later movies, including Hero.
The scenery and the buildings were beautiful as well. This was partly due to the selection of the location, which consisted of older more traditional looking buildings. But the way that Zhang Yimou caught all of these buildings and structures was interesting too. I loved the shots when we would see all of the roofs of the town together.
But I also liked how Zhang Yimou caught the dying equipment and scaffolding on screen. Because the cloth was often very long, Zhang Yimou would find a way to emphasize the length and height of the dyed cloth. I thought it was interesting that he would sometimes use unusual angles to capture that length. Of course, the lengths of cloths were also used as backdrops for conversations and such. And the wheel used for dying was very interesting too.
Characters
Ju Dou
Ju Dou was our titular character, the person introduced into this nuclear Yang family that kicked off the situation.
She was Jinshan's third wife, and noticeably younger than him, much closer in age to Jinshan's nephew Tianqing. She was abused by Jinshan, sexually and physically, and she hated it. Though she knew that Tianqing was spying on her when she bathed, she later allowed it to happen, hoping that she could find a person who could sympathize with her pain.
Later on, she came on to Tianqing, and they began an affair. I did think this was sudden, but I guess it makes sense. The two of them were isolated in an abusive environment. Having recently read Flowers in the Attic, a big theme there was how people may turn to incest when isolated in desperate situations, and something similar happened here, though perhaps not quite as scandalous. It would have been a tad more scandalous of Tianqing was Jinshan's biological nephew as well.
Anyway, Ju Dou hated Jinshan for obvious reasons, but her lover could not as Jinshan did technically raise him. So whereas Ju Dou was waiting for Jinshan to die, Tianqing could not allow that to happen out of filial piety.
So when Jinshan died via drowning, Tianqing suspected her. It was a point of disagreement between them, but I think it was something that Tianqing had only thought of in the heat of the moment. Otherwise, I did think that they were still in love the whole time.
Ju Dou's dream was probably for her, Tianqing, and Tianbai, to live happily as a family of three. But for Tianqing and Tianbai, they were never going to let that happen, for reasons I will cover below.
At the end of the movie, Ju Dou burned the whole house down. I assume that this was because Tianqing had drowned. And since she had nothing else to live for, she might as well burn down the place that gave her so much misery.
Ju Dou barely had a relationship with her son in the traditional sense. Tianbai did seem to consider her important, and he would never hurt her. However, they didn't really have a loving relationship. Tianbai never talked. Ju Dou seemed more like a caregiver than a mother to him. And perhaps ther lack of connection to her son was another reason that she didn't have anything else left to live for on this earth.
I do wonder if other people might see Ju Dou as a vixen character, coming into this family and causing a mess. She did technically come on to Tianqing, but things aren't that simple. She was being abused and she needed help. In addition, if she hadn't slept with Tianqing, she wouldn't have gotten pregnant, and Jinshan would have beaten her to death for not providing a son to him again. So for Ju Dou, yes, she did technically commit incest which is technically bad, but her other option was certain death.
Yang Jinshan
Jinshan was the abusive head of the family. Right from the beginning, we saw that he was cruel. He did not value personal relationships, immediately firing his employee after Tianqing returned, but also not being kind or welcoming to Tianqing.
While the neighbours spoke highly of Tianqing, Jinshan considered him a burden, and felt that Tianqing was indebted to him. Jinshan was also violent to Ju Dou, tying her up and presumably raping her.
After he suffered his stroke, Tianqing and Ju Dou spent more time together. Jinshan discovered their affair, and when he did, Tianqing and Ju Dou revealed that he was not the father of Tianbai. From then on, Tianqing and Ju Dou technically took care of Jinshan, but in a sort of mocking way, especially Ju Dou. She would go through the motions of providing for him, but by no means was she going to do anything more.
Jinshan had attempted to kill Ju Dou and Tianbai once, but it hadn't worked. The second time he tried to kill Tianbai, Tianbai for some reason recognized him as his father. From then on, Jinshan used Tianbai as a psychological weapon against Ju Dou and Tianbai, keeping them in their place.
Jinshan fell into a pool of dye while with Tianbai. Tianbai watched as he drowned to death and laughed.
Jinshan of course displayed some very traditionally toxic masculine qualities, only seeing women as breeding machines, and showing zero love to an adopted nephew. The affair between his wife and adopted nephew that resulted in a son that he did not have was a huge slap across his face. So using that son to control the two and keep them apart was his ultimate revenge.
I can't say for sure why Tianbai recognized Jinshan, but I don't think it was for love. Ju Dou and Tianqing mentioned that Tianbai never called Tianqing father or smiled. Jinshan was the person who could get Tianbai to call him father, and he was the person who made him laugh (when he was drowning). Jinshan seemed to stimulate Tianbai's emotions a certain way, but it definitely wasn't out of love.
Yang Tianqing
Tianqing was Jinshan's adopted nephew. He was not treated well by Jinshan. Jinshan was cold to him, treating him much more like an employee than someone he raised. But Tianqing was loyal to him.
So he did not share the same vitriol to Jinshan as Ju Dou did. He wanted Jinshan out of their way so that they could be happy together, but he would never kill him. That's why he went out into the mountains to find Jinshan and bring him back, rather than letting him starve and die in the mountains. That's why he couldn't strangle him to death when Ju Dou told him to. And that's why he suspected Ju Dou of foul play when she found Jinshan dead.
Because he grew up with the Yang family, Tianqing did have some loyalty to the Yang family rules. He and Ju Dou abided by the rules to live apart. As well, he was reluctant to run away with Ju Dou and Tianbai because Tianbai was technically the sole remaining scion of the Yang family. Ju Dou did NOT care about this, which made sense because women always got the short end of the stick when it came to family hierarchies. And this family had never treated her well, nor was she born to it. Her attachment to the Yang family was nonexistent, whereas for Tianqing, it was almost a bit of Stockholm Syndrome.
For that reason, Tianqing was a bit subservient, which annoyed Ju Dou. He was not brave enough to stand up to the rules. He would play by them, living as the brother of Tianbai instead of his father, accepting whatever ills befell him.
In the end, he was caught by Tianbai with his mother and thrown in the pool of dye, drowning in a similar way to his adopted uncle, but this time on purpose. The two men who slept with Ju Dou died this why, directly or indirectly by Tianbai's hand. And Tianqing was the only person keeping Ju Dou sane, so when he died, Ju Dou had no other reason to go on.
Yang Tianbai
Tianbai was the biological son of Tianqing and Ju Dou. I guess we're supposed to accept that Jinshan was impotent.
Anyway, Tianbai was always a bit distant from his parents. They were worried about his anti-social behaviour.
For whatever reason, he recognized Jinshan as his father. Was it karma? What about Jinshan made Tianbai tick? What made him listen to him? That was what made me suspect if Tianbai was actually Jinshan's biological son. He also seemed to inherit some cruel behaviours from him too, not being able to resolve things peacefully and quietly.
But I don't want to misinterpret his reaction to Jinshan as love. I don't think it was love. He didn't seem happy amid all of the celebrations for him (that were a result of him being Jinshan's son).
His relationshp with his mother was also very strange. I was surprised that he was protective of her, going after anybody who ruined her reputation, and carrying her to her bed after he found her in the cellar. But I struggle to say that he loved her. Maybe that was his way of showing love, in the simplest way possible, by providing protection.
Tianbai really didn't like his mom's close relationship with Tianqing. He was always very upset whenever Tianqing came by. Maybe it was that Tianqing's relationship to his mother ruined her reputation.
Tianbai is a confusing character for me, probably because he never spoke, and we could never really tell what he was thinking about.
Themes
Abuse
As said above, abuse tends to push people together regardless of their familiar relations. Whether or not Tianqing was Jinshan's biological nephew, the abuse was so strong that Ju Dou would have sought comfort with Tianqing regardless. She just wanted someone to care, someone to know. And Tianqing was literally the only other person in the house, seeing as how Jinshan would fire anyone once Tianqing returned (so as only to have to pay one worker at a time, or not at all if it was Tianqing).
So in a similar situation as Flowers in the Attic, Jinshan encouraged this incest because he was so strict about family values, abut needing his wife to fulfill her womanly duties and provide him with a son.
Family and marriage
Ju Dou's attachment to the Yang family was very different from Tianqing's. If Tianqing was an adopted nephew, that meant that Jinshan had taken him into his home and raised him (presumably from childhood). I can see why Tianqing would feel loyal and indebted to Jinshan, regardless of how cruel he was.
As for Ju Dou, she was literally bought by Yang Jinshan in order to be a babymaker for him. She had nothing to be thankful for because being abused at the Yang family was likely worse than just staying at home.
For Tianqing, he had to juggle his adopted uncle and his lover. Ju Dou felt let down because Tianqing was her most important person in the world, her only person, while Tianqing could not say the same.
The thing is, the way that family used to work was definitely misogynistic. Women would have to leave their families to marry into another, and they would become the property of the family they married into. Why would they feel any loyalty?
Meanwhile, lineages, inheritances, names, all of that prestige was given only to men. Even for Tianqing, who was not a biological nephew, at least he got his name in the ancestral geneology, having the "Tian" character in his name.
Women couldn't afford to get attached to families, and thus prioritized people. That was why she always wanted to run away with Tianqing and Tianbai. Whereas for Tianqing, he felt like he was letting down the Yang family if he did, as he would take away their only heir, even if he knew that he wasn't the biological heir.
Karma
Not that I think that Ju Dou and Tianqing's affair wasn't reasonable, but I keep wondering why Tianbai recognized Jinshan as his father. I wondered if it was a karma thing, because Ju Dou and Tianqing had an improper relationship.
Overall
Good movie. It very much reflected Zhang Yimou's early direction style, and the story was also very in line with the sort of thing he would direct. The movie was simple, but made me think.