The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) User Reviews

A film that stays with you long after the final shot

[Junker-2 · 9/10 · 14 February 2004]

Zhang Yimou's "The Story of Qiu Ju" is not a masterpiece as is his film "Raise the Red Lantern." It doesn't have the epic qualities of "To Live" nor is it as visually stunning as "The Road Home." But "Qiu Ju" may well be Yimou's most thought provoking film, leaving you pondering the messages a long time after the film has ended.

Qiu Ju's husband has been kicked ("where it counts") by the village chief. The only bit of justice Qiu Ju wants is an apology. It seems to be a simple enough request, but her search for the apology proves to be elusive as she encounters a legal system more interested in its own red tape than in the needs of ordinary people.

But this is not "Erin Brockovich" where the sides of "good" and "bad" are easily defined. The people in the legal system Qiu Ju encounters are genuinely decent folks. They are also, unfortunately, a bit clueless. And Qiu Ju is not beyond reproach herself. At the conclusion of the film even she is realizing that she has pushed the matter too far.

Just how far should one go to seek justice in this world? Even if you are totally in the right, does there come a time when you must let the matter rest for your own sake as well as everybody else's? There are no easy answers.

This is another great performance by Gong Li in the title role. She may be one of the most beautiful women in the world, but here she is not above playing "dowdy." And as usual, Zhang Yimou is nearly flawless in his direction. He gives a wonderful tip of the hat to the late French director Francois Truffaut in the end, echoing that famous final shot of Truffaut's "The 400 Blows."

But this is a film that will stick with you well past that last shot.

A parable of modern China

[DennisLittrell · 9/10 · 6 February 2001]

This is a story about saving face and winning face, and what can happen if you carry things too far. Gong Li stars as Qiu Ju, a peasant woman with child whose husband is kicked in the groin by the local chief. She wants an apology. The chief of course will not apologize since he would then lose face. Both are stubborn and obstinate. Proud and determined, Qiu Ju steers her way through the bureaucracy from the village to the district to the city; but the thing she desires, an apology from the chief, eludes her. He cannot apologize because he has only sired daughters. He has license (he believes in his heart) because he was insulted by her husband who said he raised "only hens."

The Chinese locales, from village roads to big city avenues are presented with stunning clarity so that the color and the sense of life is vivid and compelling. Director Zhang Yimou. forces us to see. From the opening shot of the mass of people in the city walking toward us (out of which emerges Qiu Ju) to the feast celebrating the child's first month of life near the end, we feel the humanity of the great mass of the Chinese people.

In a sense this is a gentle satire of the bureaucratic state that modern China has become. But Zhang Yimou emphasizes the bounty of China and not its poverty. There is a sense of abundance with the corn drying in the eaves, the sheets of dough being cut into noodles, the fat cows on the roads and the bright red chili drying in the sun. There is snow on the ground and the roads are unpaved, but there is an idyllic feeling of warmth emanating from the people. One gets the idea that fairness and tolerance will prevail.

In another sense, this is a parable about the price of things and how that differs from what is really of value. So often is price mentioned in the movie that I can tell you that a yuan at the time of the movie was worth about a dollar in its buying power. (Four and a half yuan for a "pound" of chili; five yuan as a fair price for a short cab ride; twenty yuan for a legal letter.) Getting justice in the strict sense is what Qiu Ju demands. Her affable husband would settle for a lot less. He is the wiser of the two. Notice how Qiu Ju is acutely sensitive to price. She bargains well and avoids most of the rip offs of the big city. But what is the value of being a member of the community? This is a lesson she needs to learn, and, as the movie ends, she does.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

The Reason for Qiu Ju's Determination

[mybiglarch · 8/10 · 18 September 2007]

When her husband insults a neighbor and is nearly 'emasculated', a peasant woman goes to great lengths to secure justice. Many people in the West may not understand why this woman is so determined to right such a 'minor' wrong. In Chinese culture, an assault on another man's "honor" is not viewed as a 'minor' thing; having children is very important and carries a greater social significance than it does in the West. It is expected of every man, and having a son, especially, to work in the fields for the good of the family and carry on the family name, has been worshipped as a Confucian ethic for centuries. China is still very much a paternalistic society (despite Communist reform),and the 'one child' policy has only reinforced the old Chinese adage that "if you bear a girl,bear a beautiful one, if you bear a son, bear an intelligent one." So understandably,from the viewpoint of Qiu Ju,not only does her husband suffer but her entire family name and honor suffers too, when the man is attacked in a 'sacred place', his gonads. The village chief, the fellow who delivered the disabling kick,has also been dishonored by the husband's insult about "having hens" and not boys. By kicking the offending man in the balls, the village chief wanted to save his face, hence the stalemate. But for Qiu Ju, and certainly in Chinese eyes, the greater wrong is the assault on her husband's reproductive organs. A delightful movie, so well acted with quite a few funny moments surrounding a serious issue. Zhang Yimou is one fine director.

The perfect Travelogue

[jtur88 · 10/10 · 25 November 2000]

I've visited rural China, and this is the most realistic film I have ever seen. I was awestruck at how well this film captures exactly the China that a modern visitor to the country would see. Not just the landscapes---the people are portrayed just as they are. I carry a copy of this film with me to show my friends and family--I know of no better way to illustrate the China that I actually saw. In addition, as a film-goer, I loved this film for its austere simplicity of production. I found myself wondering how many of the people who appeared on the screen were actually actors---as opposed to just having a candid camera imposing itself into their daily lives. I loved the scene in the office where an official was issuing a marriage license to a young couple---this was a spine-tinglingly poignant scene that, to me, underscored the genuine humanity that would seem so impossible in such a country---a humanity that is real. The Chinese are lovely, gentle people, and it was a delight to see a film that accurately reflects this character.

I enjoyed this complex, warm view of china.

[Charlie-209 · 7 December 2000]

Really enjoyed this one. Qiu Ju is the wife of a man who has been kicked by a neighbor, his village chief. She presses for an apology, largely (if subtitles do it justice) because, even though his chest is what hurts longer, he's been kicked in the "privates" and she wants more than one child. She takes her quest for the apology up the chain of officialdom.

I couldn't get enough of the scenery - houses, city, carts, clothes, painted paper banners, dried peppers and corn - and the faces of people. As other viewers noted positively, the people in it didn't seem to be actors but real people, caught up in daily affairs and catching us up, too. The nearby village is somewhat familiar to her, but her trip to the city may have been her first. Watching her trying to find her way around, haggling for fair rates and help from a produce buyer, a bike-cart driver, a letter writer, a hotelier, and a lawyer was a lot of fun. Her trips seemed like a great introduction to the culture.

One of the things I loved was how the families and neighbors kept having complex interactions with each other throughout the ordeal. And the social roles in this were interesting: Farm/village chief to farmer, sister to sister, daughter-in-law to her in-laws, Party officials to their hierarchy and to citizens, country to city, women's role in general (as in what sex babies are preferred) and the strong stance of a specific woman like Qiu Ju, who seemed to be empowered as much as frustrated by the system and by her family and neighbors.

I read reviews of this as a negative comment on bureaucracy. If so, it showed a remarkably humane one. Flaws were on display but the overall tone was of acceptance.

The sudden ending left me feeling for the main characters. I seemed to see a judgment in it, but wasn't sure what that judgment was. I wanted to know how the story was interpreted in China, so I came to IMDB to at least see how others took it.

Realistic portrayal of China life as Qix Ju fights bureaucracy.

[panicwatcher · 10/10 · 13 April 2001]

Most Chinese movies are about victims of the culture or political system or how beautiful you men and women are kept apart or forced together by forces outside their control. This movie is completely different. It is a simple story about the ordinary Chinese people you can meet on the street and in their homes today and their ordinary lives. It is an amazingly accurate portrayal, unlike anything I have seen before. I only spent 3 weeks in China, but this movie brought back the feel of China, its people, and organizations.

Qxi Ju wants an apology from the Chief of the commune for kicking her husband in the groin. This is a story about her travels from the commune to the big city to try to get action from various bureaucracies. Although she is treated kindly and with much respect by the bureaucrats, she never gets exactly what she wants. It is fun to watch naive country girl Qxi Ju quickly learn about master doing things in the big city.

For me, the plot in this movie is secondary. It is each of the simple scenes that make this movie wonderful: The doctor's office is heated by a wood stove and the doctor chops the wood and feeds the fire. Qxi Ju's sister gives here a ride to town on the back of her bicycle on a snow covered unpaved road. They use dried chili peppers to trade for money to get a ride to the next town. Qxi Ju negotiates for the price of each thing she buys. The scenes all seem so realistic and beautifully photographed.

Yimou Zhang also made "Raise the Red Lantern" which gets higher praise, but that movie is about a world that is harder for me to relate to. This movie is like real life and real people and China today.

Inside look of the comedy of Chinese bureaucracy

[ironhorse_iv · 7/10 · 24 February 2013]

Directed by Zhang Yimou as in many of his films, stars Gong Li in the title role. This film adaption of Chen Yuanbin's novella The Wan Family's Lawsuit tells the story of a peasant woman, Qiu Ju (Gong Li), who lives in a rural area of China. When her husband is kicked in the groin by the village head, Qiu Ju, despite her pregnancy, travels around looking for a apology. When apology isn't given, she goes to the nearby town to find the policemen to press charges, and later a big city to deal with its bureaucrats to try to find justice for her husband. Her lack-back husband, on the other hand is just happier to just move on, and let bygones be bygones, but for Qiu Ju, it becomes a never ending cycle dealing with lawyers, judges, and courts. It's a humorous fable of justice that shows how justice is distributed varies between classes. Gong Li is wonderful as Qiu Ju, a tenacious farmer determined to right a wrong done to her husband. If watching this film with hopes of seeing Gong Li's ravishing beauty, you will be disappointed. She is blandly dressed and pregnant through most of the film. Defying all stereotypes of the passive Chinese woman, she remains unbowed by the frustrations of bureaucracy in her quixotic search for dignity. In this case, "The Story of Qiu Ju" shows how the legal authorities find money as a just compensation, whereas Qiu Ju finds an apology more appropriate. The movie has a Frank Capra, Mr. Smith goes to Washington feel to it, with a simple-minded person go to the government looking for change. Also the camera work whose influence comes directly from the Italian Nero Realism films such as Francis Truffaunt's 'the 400 Blows' as the ending nearly mimics that ending shot using the freeze frame and close up. The story feels like Bicycle Thieves due to it's well narrated story about the modern day parable that explores the gray area between seeking justice and exacting revenge is chilling. It is a cautionary tale as well since it shows that justice is not an absolute. Justice can be a somewhat intangible concept - something that needs to be defined by the human experience. One person's injustice can be another person's justice. The movie intent to expose the daunting bureaucratic Chinese government, with it's use of comedy, drama, and political satire. Although the film takes place in China, there is a sense that it could be just about anywhere in the world since the struggles contained within are so universal in nature. The snakelike pathways of the bureaucracy to an unexpected outcome is a universal problem that is as much in evidence in a Democracy as well as Communist. The resulting film, as an exercise in frustration, is as essential an addition to the "literature" of the law as Dickens' Bleak House or Trollope's Orley Farm, and should be on the curriculum of every law school. The movie is a bit of a frustration to get through as well. The faults of the film are that the movie is hard to get through in one sitting, there are long periods of non-talking, and nothing going on screen, and the never ending tragic results of Qiu Ju not getting her way. The slow-paced temp of the film really hurt the film. The kick is never shown, but the entire film is based around it. I would love to see the action being case, but having the kick not show add another layer of mystery. The humor is dry, but it's funny that one point that the director seems eager to make is that the people are not hungry in China. Nearly ever other scene shows people eating. The film lacks any of the visually stunning as his other film 'The Road Home', but it's does what it can with the shots, they have. The rural scenes and settings are real. The village, journeys and settings are all real China, not a Hollywood set. The background actors are incredibly real people who don't work for screen actors guild. It's feel like Communist China. While the film might be for all audiences, it's worth checking out

Life Lessons in an Asian Village

[danstephan3000 · 10/10 · 14 September 2004]

After earning film festival awards and critical acclaim worldwide for his powerful tragedies, Director Zhang Yimou explores new themes in 'The Story of Qiu Ju.'

Once again, he examines social injustice but this time avoids dark visions. The tone is ironic, but not angry or tragic, and the story often flashes with humor and wit.

Some critics describe this film as a protest by Zhang Yimou against the Chinese government. Yet, the tale could be placed in any village in East Asia or, indeed, in any time and place one finds misunderstanding, wounded pride, conflict, and resolution.

Gong Li, so beautiful in other films, reveals her acting versatility by portraying Qiu Ju (roughly pronounced as 'show chew'), as a hugely pregnant peasant. Gong Li had prepared for this role by living for months in a village of Northeast China to learn the local dialect and to get a feeling for this rural culture.

The story begins when Qiu Ju demands an apology from her village chief, who had injured her husband during a quarrel with a blow to the groin. She goes to higher and higher levels of government in her appeals for this apology, even after her husband and others urge her to settle for money. At the end, after some surprises, she and the chief have both learned some life lessons.

In the opening scene, Zhang Yimou draws us steadily into the rhythms and mood of the story when his camera gradually brings us past strolling pedestrians to introduce us to Qiu Ju and another peasant woman helping to push her disabled husband in a cart. We can see in this shot, and in other scenes, that bystanders were not aware what was going on.

Some even give puzzled looks at the camera, adding to the film's gentle humor.

Many other episodes gradually take us further into the culture and its story. For example, when Qiu Ju comes to the local government office to start her appeals, we first wait and watch while two teen-agers register their marriage. The district administrator has some fun by asking the shy youngsters if they will still love each other after their wedding night.

After hearing Qiu Ju's story, this district administrator urges her to settle for cash from the village chief. Yet, she pushes onward, patiently assisted in this by her woman companion in appeals for an apology to higher and higher levels of government. One of the film's best portraits is of this little peasant woman quietly standing by Qiu Ju's side.

She never questions nor complains; we all hope for friends like that.

The film's quiet tone and slow pace also give us time to appreciate some underlying social criticisms. Qiu Ju hires a lawyer to write and deliver a petition to the court. He tells her he will make sure that justice is served. She seems impressed. 'So!! You get money to make sure the right thing is done. Being a lawyer is good!!'

Yet, it doesn't turn out so well for her. The highest court in Xian, the provincial capital, has an impressive courtroom and set of procedures. Its jury of several judges collects testimony and ponders at length, but once again the verdict is upheld…..money but no apology.

This seems to be the end of the tale. Some big surprises turn the story in a new direction. She and the chief next learn to respect each other, but……

See for yourself how it all turns out. You won't forget the vision of Qiu Ju at the end, bewildered and regretful, getting a verdict in her favor but that she did not want.

Those who have lived in any East Asian village will understand why Qiu Ju was urged to take money but not force the chief to lose face.

As one Chinese woman explained to me, '….we and our families for generations lived too close to each other. We just had to get along. This was not always easy…..' She added that 'The Story of Qiu Ju' is the most understanding and affectionate portrait she had ever seen of the rural culture she knew as a child. Some Thai friends told me that the film also evoked childhood memories of their village life, where a Buddhist monk would arbitrate personal disputes and act to restore calm.

PS: This film was made in 1992, after the ending of the Chinese cultural revolution enabled Zhang Yimou to enroll in the new Beijing Film Academy. Since then, he's made many films with worldwide renown, including 'Raise the Red Lantern' and 'Red Sorghum' with Gong Li and, more recently, 'Not One Less' and 'Hero'. You should be able to find 'Story of Qiu Ju' at any good video shop. It's already a classic.

Good, but far from my favorite Zhang Yimou (or Gong Li) film

[zetes · 7/10 · 19 June 2006]

Probably my least favorite Zhang Yimou film. Oh, it's not bad. It's pretty good, to tell the truth. But it's the kind of film where you get the point right away and you have to spend 100 minutes watching the filmmaker stumble toward the foregone conclusion. Gong Li plays the title character, a hugely pregnant woman. Her husband just got kicked in the nuts by their farming community's chief, and Qiu Ju wants an apology. Unfortunately, none of the officials she takes the case to can actually force the guy to apologize. They can make him dole out monetary compensation, but that's not good enough for Qiu Ju. Every time she doesn't get the results she wants, she attempts to go to a higher level of authority. It's an amusing situation, but the film kind of plods along slowly. I won't demand Zhang Yimou stick to his wonderful visual talents, but it is disappointing how mundane this film looks and feels. The worst crime perhaps is that Gong Li isn't given much acting to do. I love the final look on her face when the film ends, but I think pretty much anyone could have played Qiu Ju. I know, it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. I just wasn't overly impressed with it, despite its obvious qualities.

Sweet, sad little film filled with timely social commentary on the Chinese system

[meebly · 8/10 · 4 December 1998]

Gong Li, China's top actress in the 1990s (deservedly so), plays a naive but determined innocent, a young married woman from a remote farming village who wants nothing more than to have the village elder apologize to her husband for kicking him in a fit of anger. The bureaucratic nightmare she endures, making repeated trips to "the city" to seek justice, exposes her to a system she didn't know existed, a completely convoluted and impregnable one that operates solely by standards and practices, totally devoid of compassion or an understanding of the people it governs.

This is a small film, an earlier work by master Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (To Live, Ju Dou), but what really makes it work is Gong as Qiu Ju. Every effect of this effectless society registers on her face, mostly in the form of surprise at the promises unkept and disappointment at the lack of concern by officials who are supposed to be responsible to "the people." She makes us care deeply about Qiu Ju, even though we may not be able to identify directly with her circumstances, but even beyond this, she makes these provincial circumstances universal by being the everywoman, someone who just wants the people in charge to do what's right without it necessarily having any adverse impact on themselves. Gong's ability to inject political situations with sincere human emotion has made her an ideal representative of the message running through all of Zhang's films (she has appeared in several of them), but beyond this, she simply is a great actress who should eventually become as world renowned as Joan Chen once was.

What makes this film even more prescient is how well many Americans may identify with the nightmares presented by a government hierarchy overstuffed with "I just work here" bureaucrats. And the ending is infused with a poignant irony that will hit home with anyone who has, in their own lives, found that time heals all wounds.

A Moment in Chinese Time

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 2 May 2016]

A pregnant peasant woman seeks redress from the Chinese bureaucracy after the village chief kicks her husband in the groin in this comedy of justice. As she is frustrated by each level of the hierarchy and travels farther and farther away from the countryside the viewer is also provided with a look at the changing Chinese society through the verite camera used in most scenes.

Roger Ebert said "along the way we absorb more information about the lives of ordinary people in everyday China than in any other film I've seen." And really, this is the greatness of the film. The mixture of images of Mao with Western advertising and swimsuits. This is a time trapped partially in the 1950s, but also striving towards the 1990s. Whether the cultural influence is a good thing or not, it makes for a fascinating time capsule.

Good stuff

[charles_li7 · 10/10 · 9 February 2010]

This movie, "The Story of Qiu Ju", follows the actions of the main character Qiu Ju, a determined rural resident who seeks out authorities after her husband is kicked by her village chief.

One thing I liked about the movie was the plot - it was fresh and original. In addition, the ending had a nice little twist to it (although it was somewhat obvious what was going to happen).

I also found the movie to be very cleverly written, as they implemented comedy in a very subtle manner. One example is when Qiu Ju and her sister-in-law were in the city and they had just bought "city clothes". They looked very entertaining in those clothes, but also that scene was not made purely for comedy, because the writers were also trying to show that they were very country-side oriented and had probably never been to the city and they were trying to show how their lack of experience through their incorrect wearing of clothing.

Under China's dirty rug.

[DukeEman · 7/10 · 7 January 2002]

A simply story about a village woman seeking justice for the maltreatment of her husband by the Village chief. At first you wonder "so what!" but the unveiling of the Chinese system & the woman's determination rewards you for your time and patients.

First Zhang Yimou's I've given up on

[cherold · 5/10 · 11 February 2020]

Zhang Yimou has made some movies I've loved, and some movies I could do without, but this is the first one I've come across that I stopped watching in the middle of.

While billed as a "comedy," there's nothing especially funny in this slice-of-live drama about a woman determined to force an apology out of the village chief. It's basically a bunch of taciturn people bundled up for the winter frowning and chatting.

Certainly this is a good movie to get a sense of 1990s China, since it portrays both the simple, basic country life while also showing you the cities. And it does give a sense of the Chinese justice system, which is certainly bureaucratic but actually seems more reasonable than you would expect from most western portrayals of communism.

But it's just very dull, and comedy or not, the lives of the protagonists seem tedious and bleak.

I know it's a big art-house hit, but for me this is very skippable.

Vast surge, no one thing wins out

[chaos-rampant · 23 October 2015]

This is a small thing, but ripe, all about learning to naturally go out among life.

This is is first in the story. A wife demands to know why her husband was kicked "where it hurts" by a local official. Why did he do it? She ventures out in the village, then down in the city in search of answers. The tip of the thread that humorously guides us through different faces so that altogether we get a snapshot of Chinese life.

A constable arbites and gives his verdict, which seems perfectly reasonable, the accused will cover medical expenses and both parties are made aware that they were both wrong. But the wife is not pleased, she wants a more significant justice, and will go through the state apparatus looking for it.

This has led some viewers to think that we're meant to be seeing an individual being caught in the gears of an absurd and uncaring bureaucracy; that seems to be a handy interpretation we have in the West ever since Kafka. But that's not the point being made here.

Party officials, whenever encountered, are always benevolent and trying to be fair, quietly exasperated by the antics of the people in their charge. A higherup is kind enough to drive her back to the hotel on his car, another one stoically returns someone's stray animal. You can see why this among Zhang's early work was not banned over there.

But every new verdict from higher offices remains the same however, which is to say, the world is just so, maybe not ideal. Why make a fuss about why we do things, why stand so rigidly? There's no deeper reason sometimes and we're better off mending ourselves by moving forward, going along unconstrained by "right" and "wrong". This is often hard to translate to someone in the West because we have made ourselves stupid by arguing from principle instead of seeing what the specific thing in front of us calls for now.

And the notion of contrived uncontrivance extends in everything else. Zhang is aiming for a snapshot of life whereby we just mingle with things, what they used to call "neorealism" back in the day. The view it ventures to offer will be precious, a heartland generally closed to us.

More pertinently for me, it evokes a view of life, a warmth and sense of community I like. Lovingly obstinate in trying to fathom its tempests, pettiness without malice, quiet perseverance in simple things. Zhang lets all of this envelop in a natural way, as impulse that climbs up through the soles of the feet.

Gong Li is perfectly in tune with this, sublime in erasing any trace of an actor's face behind the shawl, making herself like a stump of uncontrived urges. We're meant to see that though a kind person, she's also a little dull in her fixation to an apology. And look how naturally she comes forth from her body, then watch her as the nervous empress in Golden Flower. What a range in which she moves freely.

"I'm not for money, I just want a reasonable argument."

[y-26698 · 9/10 · 11 June 2020]

The whole story is very smooth, and the portrayal of rural China in the film is easy to sigh the director's care for farmers.

Spectacular But Simple Quixotic Tale

[jonathanmsw-53090 · 10/10 · 22 February 2021]

Zhang Yimou masterfully reveals the essence of the dynamics at work in Chinese society and the impact of traditional culture and modern day politics on the lives of individual citizens and families in China. Whether you support the quixotic quest of Qiu Ju and her sidekick Meizi (translation: younger sister) or not you will fall in love with the sincerity, purity and simplicity of their hearts. These qualities (among others) that endear so many of the real people whom we ("foreigners"/non-Chinese) meet, while living in the People's Republic of China, to us are represented with amazing clarity and realism. The story and plot line are very (almost too) simple; but the character development, and presentation of village, city, and district politics in China and the vast differences between people's lives in those settings is so interesting and intriguing that the movie will keep you amused, interested, and excited, and have you wishing to see more as the credits start rolling at the end of the movie. This was one of the few movies that actually had me feeling as though I was back in China among so many wonderful friends, sights, and smells, and re-experiencing the oddly comfortable sense of chronic culture shock. I would recommend this movie to anyone who truly wants to better understand our brothers' and sisters' situations in China and to have your heart and mind opened and broadened. The movie is spoken in the Shaanxi dialect of Chinese (although I could understand much of it with my limited fluency in Mandarin) and subtitled in English. Even though it is really a drama many of the comical and sweet interpersonal situations in this movie will have you laughing out loud as you learn to see into the hearts of the characters and look upon the vast cultural differences with more respect, compassion, and understanding. I am happy to own this movie and plan to share it with others who are open-minded enough to consider and appreciate what this fine work of art represents.

Fine Acting, Slow Pace

[hupfons5 · 6/10 · 22 November 2006]

Another fine performance by Gong Li in a story that takes too long to reach its disconcerting conclusion. (SPOILER) Her character's determined struggle to seek a just settlement for the local Communist party official's assault on her husband is impressive. She is not deterred by physical hardship, swindlers, party bureaucrats, or the arrogance of the party official himself.

(SPOILER) The plot twist that occurs at the birth of her baby almost redeems the slow pace of the film up to that point of the story, but not quite.

The location shots (in the cities and rural areas) enhance the story but not quite enough for this reviewer. Not a waste of time for those with enough patience to wait for the story to reach its conclusion, but not as good as many other of Gong Li's & Yimou Zhang's work.

Persistent Integrity

[akira-hideyo · 10/10 · 31 October 2021]

You can see through this movie, as simple as it's compilation may appear, Gong Li excels in her portrayal of a stubborn march of mellow innocence towards the pursuit of justice and why even till today, she's still highly regarded as the movie queen that she is and so widely deserves. An accurate insight into how rural China communism operates during thie golden years Mao. One will however observe there's a certain relaxation of dictatorial rule that permeates the system where complaints are handled and processed through a simple word of conveyance to a village official before escalation to the next higher authority, a surprising far detour from the usual expected fearful tolerance of citizenry governed by most military, vis-a- viz, as would those in Nazi oppressionn.

in a word...simple

[jokercard88 · 7/10 · 29 January 2003]

In a word...simple. All the plot is about is a wife whose husband got kicked in the d*** by some chief or governor (I didn't pay attention to> their ranks). Despite this, the movie is still great, Gong Li isn't as beautiful as usual (that jacket makes her look like a marshmellow), but she gives her usual beautiful performance. 9/10.

Less about bureaucracy, more about male dominance

[redguy · 10/10 · 13 October 2000]

Many perhaps would like to limit Qiu Ju to a quiet disquisition on the inefficacy and passionless drive of Chinese bureaucracy. The only matter that is truly ineffectual is making such a rash and shallow statement about a film that actually bears more emotion for bureaucracy than against it.

Each instance of appeal to the officers of the government raises the level of kindness and mercy shown to little country Qiu Ju venturing so far into a civilized wilderness packed with wolves. Whenever she is addressed by those in the government, they offer every motion of help that they can. The only thing they're unable to demand of the offending chief is an apology. It would seem that the only kind of justice that any government may demand of a human being has been supplied. The undercurrent of The Story of Qiu Ju is its distinct relation to aspects of August Strindberg's sexist realism. Qiu Ju is portrayed as stubborn and unreasonable, insisting that an apology be made when so much monetary compensation has been offered. It is a solemn portrait of a woman in a male-dominated universe.

Good People can be Sued? Of Course!

[Meganeguard · 8/10 · 1 January 2006]

After a bountiful chili pepper harvest, Wan Qinglai wants to build a storage house for his crop. Having already purchased the bricks and tiles for the storage house, Wan Qinglai asks the village chief Wang Shantang permission to build the storage house, however, Wang Shantang never answers Wan's inquiry. Losing his temper, Wan states that Wang can do nothing more than raise "hens", meaning that Wang is a worthless man because he has no son. Angered, Wang beats Wan and even kicks him in the privates. This incident will eventually lead to a ball of bureaucratic red tape as big as a boulder.

Recuperating at home and letting his privates air out, Wan is willing to let the matter pass, but his wife Qiu Ju, Gong Li, argues her case to the Party official Officer Li and he orders Chief Wang to pay for Wan's medical bills and lost wages. Yet, this is not what Qiu Ju desires. She wants Chief Wang to explain why he kicked her husband in the family jewels and apologize for doing so, but being that he is a proud man and feels that he was wronged by Wan, the chief refuses to do so. He even goes as far as to toss the 200 Yuan he is supposed to give Wan in front of Qiu Ju and tells her to pick up each bill individually so that she bows to him twenty times.

Infuriated by Chief Wand, the very pregnant Qiu Ju, with her young sister-in-law Meizi in tow, heads for the village office. When the verdict is the same as the one handed down by Officer Li, Qiu Ju and Meizi head for the county seat. When Chief Wang is only ordered to pay 50 Yuan more, Qiu Ju and Meizi make their way to the big city.

While on its surface this film might at first seem as nothing more than one woman's search for justice, it is much more than that. This film is openly critical to those in power. When Qiu Ju demands Chief Wang to apologize not only does he refuse to do so he dares her to try to sue him. He believes that, and is probably right in most cases, that his membership and loyalty to the party will protect him from a commoner such as Qiu Ju. Qiu Ju doubts the system when she wonders if someone like her has a chance against someone in Chief Wang's position.

Outside of politics, the film also does a good contrasting the lives of those who live in the countryside with those who live in the city. Almost immediately after arriving in the city, Qiu Ju and Meizi are taken advantage of by a taxi-cyclist. However, their naivety moves a few people to aid them, such as the old man who owns the hotel in which they reside and Official Yan a Party official who Qiu Ju holds great respect for.

Displaying the beauty, and poverty, of China's frigid northern landscape, The Story of Qiu Ju, while not a polemic blast against the Chinese political system, displays the complex web of the Middle Kingdom's political system and the ways in which those in power, even if that person is just the chief of a small village, takes advantage of those in weaker positions. However, on another note, the film could also be viewed as a criticism against pigheadedness. At any rate, this is an enjoyable film that should be watched by those who enjoy Chinese films, especially the films made during the heyday of the Zhang Yimou/Gong Li collaboration.

I'd like to give it a higher rating but

[badtothebono · 4/10 · 28 June 2006]

all the knee-jerk reviewers with their banal, namby pamby comments used all the high ratings up. Get real people, she wants "nothing more than to have the village elder apologize to her husband". NO. She wants the apology for herself. How many people like this do I know? People who've never accomplished much of anything in their lives, but they run around like the Queen of Sheba, demanding the world listen to them above all else. "bureaucratic nightmare"?!?! She gets treated better than Americans do by both their government and most of the commercial organizations which we pay for service! "a completely convoluted and impregnable" system "totally devoid of compassion and understanding"? The system is open to her, even saying "you have a right to be suspicious, we might make mistakes" & then prompting her to take it to the next level. The system UNDERSTANDS that systems cannot make people APOLOGIZE. Systems can throw people in jail, fine them, etc. An apology is an emotion, not a system event. Her problem is she doesn't understand what things are worth & worth fighting for. She's always haggling over money in the film. What are things worth? What is an "I'm sorry" spoken by someone with a gun held to their head WORTH?

Get real people. "the Chinese are quiet, gentle people"!?!? Yeah, tell that to all the victims of the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square, etc. They are PEOPLE, some good, some bad, some gentle, some psychotic killers more interested in their own good time & fortune than in other people's next breath.

Get real. "Oh, it shows the real Chinese countryside." It was made IN the Chinese countryside by Chinese! Were you expecting to be reminded of Coal Miner's Daughter & the Appalachians perhaps?

All in all, fine acting and a fine Rorschach of a story. It drags quite a bit in the "local color" scenes, but for anyone who has never strayed more than 500 miles from their birthplace, there's the local color.

The Zhang Yimou quintuplet

[tieman64 · 23 August 2014]

This is a very brief review of "Red Sorghum" (1987), "Ju Dou" (1990), "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991), "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) and "To Live" (1994), five films by Zhang Yimou. Each film stars actress Gong Li, each works as a companion-piece to the other, and each deals almost exclusively with the oppression of women within early 20th century China.

Zhang's debut, "Red Sorghum" stars Gong Li as Young Nine, a peasant who is sold to a wealthy leper. Things only get worse for Nine, who must fend off a series of rapists, mean men and the Japanese Army itself, all the while running a successful winery. Throughout the film, Zhang uses boxes, deep reds and tight squares to amplify Nine's sexist surroundings. Indeed, the film opens with Nine literally forced into a box, a social reality which she spends the film attempting to break free of or even transform. For Zhang, China wasn't "disrupted" by the Japanese invasion, it was hell long before. Like most of Zhang's films during this period, "Sorghum" sketches the cultural and socioeconomic conditions which spurred China, with hopeful arms, toward Maoism.

Zhang's next film, "Ju Dou", covers similar material. Here Gong Li plays Ju Dou, a woman sold to a violent oaf ("When I buy an animal I treat it as I wish!") who owns a fabric dying establishment. After her husband is crippled, Ju Dou forges a relationship with Yang Jinshan, a relative. When Ju Dou and Jinshan have a child together, the kid grows up into a mean brute. Like "Sorghum", "Ju Duo" is a tragedy obsessed with rich reds, boxes and patriarchal violence. Whilst its plot superficially echoes Zhang's own adulterous, then-scandalous affair with Gong Li, Zhang seems more interested in the way Ju Dou and Jinshan hide their illicit affair from other villagers. For Zhang, the duo's tacit submission to social mores merely validates the notion that their love is scandalous and so merely validates the symbolic power of the crippled patriarch, a power which Ju Dou's son must – as per his mother's very own actions – thereby respect and avenge.

The arbitrary nature of power, and how this power is always "symbolic" and always unconsciously maintained (via ritual, personal belief and shared delusions), is itself the obsession of Zhang's "Raise the Red Lantern". Here Gong Li again plays a woman sold to a wealthy man. This man has several other wives, all of whom begin to violently fight one another in an attempt to win the patriarch's adoration. "Is it the fate of women to become concubines?" a character asks, pointing to the film's deft critique of feudal relations. Zhang's first masterpiece, "Lantern" is again obsessed with reds, boxes and sequestered women, though here Zhang replaces the voluptuous colours, camera work and widescreen Cinemascopes of his previous films with something more restrained. Because of this, Zhang's conveying of claustrophobia and oppression, of mind and spirit pushed to madness, feels all the more powerful.

Next came Zhang's "The Story of Qiu Ju". A near masterpiece, it stars Gong Li as Qui Ju, a peasant farmer who embarks on a quest to avenge her husband, who's had his crotch kicked in by a village leader. More emasculated by this attack than her own husband, Qui Ju's quest takes her all across China, dealing with a Chinese bureaucracy which seems quite helpful, polite and even rational. And yet still this bureaucracy does not please Qiu Ju. It thinks in terms of commodities, monetary recompense and punishment, whilst Qiu Ju (like Zhang Yimou himself, whose previous films were banned, without explanation, by Chinese authorities) seems more interested in acquiring a "shuafa", a simple explanation and apology. By the film's end, both the "primitive justice" of rural China and the "civilized justice" of modern China are simultaneously mocked, praised and shown to be thoroughly incompatible. Zhang's first "neo-realist" film, "Qiu Ju" was shot with hidden cameras, amateur actors, and so is filled with subtle observations, cruel ironies and beautiful sketches of peasant life.

One of Zhang's finest films, "To Live" followed. It stars Gong Li as Jiazhen, the wife of a wealthy man (Ge You) who is addicted to gambling. When this gambling results in the family losing its mansions, riches and status, Jiazhen and her husband are forced onto the streets. Ironically, this set-back saves the family; the Cultural Revolution arrives, and with China's shift to nascent communism, all wealthy land owners are demonised, attacked and killed.

Unlike most films which tackle life under Mao's Great Leap Forward, "To Live" carefully juggles the good and bad of what was essentially a nation shirking off feudalism, monarchs, uniting and then trying, clumsily, to cook up some form of egalitarian society. This quest results in all manners of contradictions and socio-political paradoxes: community, solidarity and a simple life save our heroes, but their world is one of paranoia, danger, and in which everyone and everything is accused of being "reactionary". The film ends with Jiazhen's daughter dying, a death which is the result of both unchecked consumption (a doctor dies gobbling food) and communist "reorganisation" (all competent doctors have been killed/jailed for being counter-revolutionary). This jab at communism got the film banned in China (further highlighting the insecurity of the regime). Ironically, Maoism saw massive positive health care reformations, and saw an improvement in mortality rates which at times surpassed even then contemporary Britain and parts of America (life expectancy doubled from 32 years in the 1940s to 65 years in the 1970s). But such things don't concern Zhang. Spanning decades, "To Live" is mostly a broad account of life, love, loss and growth (the personal and political), all unfolding upon a canvas that is devastatingly cruel. Significantly, the film's title is both adjectival and a command; this is "what life is", but one must nevertheless "always push on". Gong Li and Ge You in particular are excellent.

8/10 - See "Murder on a Sunday Morning".

The film might be regarded as too slow moving or un-dramatic by Western eyes.

[khanbaliq2 · 9/10 · 12 June 2010]

The outraged pregnant wife (Gong Li) of an injured Chinese peasant appeals to the highest courts in the land to force a village elder to apologize for injuring her husband. The Story Of Qiu Ju was a hit at film festivals and won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1992.

Qiu Ju takes it personally when the local chief kicks her husband in the groin over a planning dispute, triggering her quietly fenacious quest for justice, told in almost documentary style. Her mission sheds light on the tangled mess of China's legal system, and the huge gap between life in the cities and rural areas.