The Story of Qiu Ju

It takes a while before you realize The Story of Qiu Ju is a comedy. It's played with impeccable seriousness. The first image is of Qiu Ju and her sister-in-law dragging her injured husband to a shabby doctor's office. You're braced for a realist story. Then you learn the nature of his injury.

Qiu Ju's husband was kicked in the family jewels by the village chief. A business dispute turned into an insult-throwing match about which man was more capable of producing sons. The chief went straight to the heart of the matter.

The husband's wound isn't serious, but Qiu Ju wants a basic sense of justice fulfilled. The chief offers to pay the medical bills, but does so with a flippant contempt, not wanting to admit that he may have done something wrong.

In fact, no one wants to admit wrong doing, and no one want to lose face. Therefore, a minor brawl becomes a major incident.

This is modern-day China, where a staunch patriarchal tradition has collided head-on with the government's strict, one-child-only policy. (And its particular application – the chief has four daughters.) It's also a post-revolutionary China, where the Maoist man is being hastily reshaped into the new consumer. At a market stall, posters of Mao share space with shots of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Story of Qiu Ju is a remarkably subtle satire by Zhang Yimou, one of the more prominent of China's so-called “Fifth Generation” filmmakers. His previous productions, Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern, received international attention.

Before becoming a director, Zhang Yimou was one of China's best film photographers. His camera work on the seminal Chinese film The Yellow Earth is truly breath-taking. The Story of Qiu Ju is a visual treat, too (especially its emotionally effective use of color). The film overwhelms the senses without even trying.

Qiu Ju's droll presentation of Chinese bureaucracy lacks some of the caustic bite of earlier Fifth Generation works, such as The Black Cannon Incident. But Qiu Ju has a sense of irony that's often quite funny and, in its surprise conclusion, unsettling.