Voters: Asif Kapadia, Cheng Jihua.

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Product Description

A humorous fable of justice that traverses shot in the north of China. Gong Li plays Qiu Ju a tenacious farmer determined to right a wrong done to her husband. Defying all stereotypes of the passive Chinese woman she remains unbowed by the frustrations of bureaucracy in her quixotic search for dignity.System Requirements:Run Time: 100 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN Rating: PG UPC: 043396141124 Manufacturer No: 14112

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13556 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Cantonese
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: Chinese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
The kick is never shown, but the entire film is based around it. It's winter in the remote Shaanxi province. Pregnant Qiu Ju (Gong Li, 2046) is married to laidback farmer Qinglai (Liu Pei Qi). When village chief Wang (Lei Lao Sheng) kicks him during an argument, she sets out to ensure that her husband receives medical attention--and justice. Clad in a bulky jacket, face partially obscured by a thick scarf, the strong-willed woman, joined by sister-in-law Meizi (Yang Liu Chun), travels far and wide to find someone who can coerce Wang to apologize (she asked, he refused). All agree the chief was in the wrong, but each authority with whom she meets hands her off to another. Along the way, the couple is offered financial compensation (for medical care and lost wages), but an apology is as elusive as a dragonfly in December. Taking cues from both Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) and Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves), Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers) presents modern-day China as a country where bureaucrats run the show and the citizens--especially the women--must suffer the consequences. Fortunately, some are more persistent than others, and The Story of Qiu Ju is far from tragic. Just as their fifth pairing represents one of Yimou's rare contemporary efforts, the dressed-down title character is also an anomaly for Li, his real-life love at the time. The risk paid off and the result is one of their most cherished collaborations. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

From The New Yorker
This new film by the Chinese director Zhang Yimou is a far cry from his earlier work. After such intense, forbidding fables as "Red Sorghum'' and "Raise the Red Lantern'' we are now offered a rough-edged comedy about a man kicked in the groin by the village elder. The victim's wife Qiu Ju (played by Gong Li) is determined to see justice done; all she wants is an apology, but the quest for it takes her away from village life and into the chaos of the city. She and her sister-in-law wander around (through the first modern crowds we have seen in a Zhang film) and get snared in bureaucratic red tape. The rhythm of the movie is a kind of gentle shuffle, and its beauty the result more of accident, you feel, than design; corncobs and chilies hanging from the roof of a hut are all that remain of the violent reds and yellows that glared throughout Zhang's second feature, "Ju Dou.'' It was brave to turn away from that driven style, but not altogether wise; who would have thought that a Zhang Yimou film could ever turn out to be something of a drag? In Mandarin. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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Customer Reviews

A Glimpse of Rural China
I liked "The Story of Qui Ju" bacause it was a nice story about a woman in rural China who wants simple justice. Her efforts to rectify an embarassing wrong done to her husband expands to a point beyond anyone's expectation. The beauty of the movie is in the process and determination of Qui Ju to receive satisfaction. The characters are very well presented (especially the title character). The view we get of life in China is outstanding. As much as I enjoyed this movie, however, I have seen too many greater movies to give this a "5 Star" rating. It IS a nice rainy-day film, though.

Sometimes you get what you wanted...
Qiu Ju wants the town's chief to explain why he kicked her husband in the family jewels. She does not want money or even justice. She wants to know WHY he kicked her husband and she wants an apology. The whole movie is her climb up the ladder of law, trying again and again to just get what she wants. A simple answer and an apology. In the end she kind of wins but she also loses. Right when you think there is going to be a happy ending, kind of, the authorities finally take things seriously and mess it all up. Will she and the chief and the town ever get along?

I guess I have a lot to learn....
This movie was dull. I'm sorry, but it was for me. However, before writing a review I was hesitant to write at all, I read the reviews and realized how uneducated I am in many aspects of film and realized much of what I was blind to in my urgency to have some plot development.
I understood the point the movie set out to make, it isn't a deep one. That's part of the whole issue with me...the movie is practically a documentary and moves slowly and methodically towards its stupor awakening surprise ending. The study of China is fascinating to be sure and I get the human side of the story. However, I found myself getting frustrated that so little was happening and that the title character was so maddeningly stubborn. Oddly enough, I dreamt of the movie all night long and was amazed at how it had crept into my subconscious so deeply.
On the plus side, the performances are perfect and the travel documentary of China, from the pristine snowy farms to the bustling gray and indifferent city is worth watching.
I advise someone to be patient, bring an open mind, and seek out the things you might rarely look for in a movie. In that, you might well enjoy it better than I did.