Zhang Yimou's 1990 film Ju Dou was the first film in China to receive an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and a Palme d'Or nomination.
Behind the honor, the film has been banned for 25 years, only because the theme of the film is about the unkind love of aunts and nephews, and darkness is the most important color of the film.
The main characters in it are not perfectly tall and complete, but each has its own dark side.
Ju Dou's derailment, Yang Jinshan's perversion, Yang Tianqing's cowardice, Yang Tianbai's cruelty. Together, the four construct an ethical tragedy in the context of feudal ritualism.
The movie mainly tells that after Ju Dou was bought home by Yang Jinshan, who lacked sexual ability, Ju Dou was his worker during the day, and his sex slave at night, and the tortured Ju Dou finally cheated on Yang Jinshan's nephew Yang Tianqing, and the two staged a story of unrequited love.
In the context of the old times, how did Judou become a victim of feudal etiquette?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > how the tragedy of Yang Jinshan, the owner of the dyeing workshop, was formed</h1>
Yang Jinshan represents a group of people, a group of large landowners who were powerful in the old society but were rich and unkind.
Yang Jinshan, who has a rich family property, is not only stingy with outsiders, but also extremely mean to his adopted nephew Yang Tianqing. Compared with Yang Tianqing's life and death, he was more concerned about whether the horses he fed were healthy.
Yang Tianqing's greatest value in the dyeing workshop is cheap labor. Yang Jinshan exploited this cheap labor to the extreme, which led to Yang Tianqing's forty-year-old wife, and Yang Jinshan had already married three wives.
In the patriarchal society of no filial piety, there are three, and no queen is a greater patriarchal society. Yang Jinshan's biggest trouble is that he is old and has no children.
He has a shame that cannot be expressed to outsiders, and Yang Jinshan is a sexually incompetent. Yang Jinshan, who refuses to admit his physical problems, vents his anger on the woman he bought. He tossed them desperately and blamed women for not being able to have children.
The first two women were tortured to death by him.
The third woman, Ju Dou, was also humiliated by night and night, and finally Red Apricot went out of the wall and took the initiative to seduce Yang Jinshan's nephew Yang Tianqing.
But when Yang Jinshan looks at Ju Dou alone, Ju Dou will not wear a green hat for him.
Yang Jinshan, who has been pursuing his son all his life, finally has a son Yang Tianbai, but this son is Yang Tianqing's.
When he knew the truth, Yang Jinshan, who was already paralyzed, tried to kill the child several times, but he missed the opportunity because of physical inconvenience.
Once, Yang Jinshan tried to push three-year-old Yang Tianbai down the dyeing pond, but he couldn't get his hands down because the child suddenly called him Daddy.
Being a father is Yang Jinshan's lifelong dream, and he can never let go of the fact that he has no offspring. Therefore, this father made Yang Jinshan's heart soften.
Since then, he has often played with Yang Tianbai, not only to release his father's love, but also to humiliate Ju Dou and Yang Tianqing.
When the two heard Yang Tianbai shouting at his mother and brother, this blow was huge.
Sadly, Yang Jinshan eventually died because of his son, and Yang Tianbai accidentally let the paralyzed Yang Jinshan fall into the dyeing pool while playing by the dyeing pool, and Yang Jinshan cried out for his life. This "Xi Dang Daddy" who was bent on seeking a son eventually died at the hands of his son, and the ending was really ironic.
Yang Jinshan is dead, and his influence is still there. He could not persecute Ju Dou and Yang Tianqing, but he had already cultivated helpers.
Yang Jinshan's mind was full of bad thoughts, and in the process of getting along with Tianbai, he taught by example, making Tianbai the inheritor of feudal etiquette, and letting Tianbai punish Judou and Yang Tianqing instead of himself.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the cowardly and incompetent Yang Tianqing is the leader of the tragedy</h1>
Yang Tianqing is the son of Yang Jinshan's neighbor, because his parents died since childhood, he was adopted by Yang Jinshan and became a cheap labor force in the dyeing factory.
Yang Jinshan used more affection for him than he did, so after he married three wives, he was still reluctant to pay a little money to marry his nephew who was over forty years old.
Yang Jinshan thought about how to squeeze out every point of Yang Tianqing's utilization value all day.
Even though Yang Jinshan was ruthless and unjust to Yang Tianqing, Yang Tianqing was still filial to this uncle.
After he and Ju Dou had an unrequited love, knowing that Yang Jinshan had fallen down the hillside, Yang Tianqing still carried the crippled Yang Jinshan back.
Yang Tianqing had the opportunity to push Yang Jinshan off the cliff, but his cowardice and kindness made him give up this opportunity.
Ju Dou hoped several times that Yang Tianqing could get rid of Yang Jinshan, but Yang Tianqing hesitated, he was not willing to get rid of Yang Jinshan, nor did he want to leave with Ju Dou's mother and son.
His cowardice led to the eventual tragedy.
When Bai passed the third birthday party on the same day, relatives and friends asked Yang Tianqing, the "brother", to say something, yang Tianqing cried, this is the dumb eating Huang Lian, there is bitterness can not say.
If it wasn't for his hesitation, how could such an embarrassing situation have occurred. He dug a pit and buried himself, Ju Dou, and his son Yang Tianbai.
Since then, he has been paying for his cowardice.
Until his own son could no longer stand the relationship between Yang Tianqing and Ju Dou, a stick ended his life.
Yang Jinshan raised Yang Tianqing and taught Yang Tianqing all the rules of that patriarchal society.
He loves Ju Dou, but he is always reluctant to give her the same respect. When he defended Yang Jinshan, he was also defending feudal etiquette, and in the end he committed his own sins and could not live.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > yang Tianbai, the successor of feudal etiquette, was also a poor man</h1>
Yang Tianbai in the whole film is the least number of lines but also the most terrifying existence.
His lines are only three sentences: Father, Mother, Brother
These three identities represent the confusion of the family's relationship, and the biological father Yang Tianqing can only be Yang Tianbai's brother in name.
What Yang Tianbai witnessed since he was a child was the unrequited love between his mother and his "brother", as well as the cold-blooded perversion of his paralyzed father Yang Jinshan.
What is the atmosphere of a family, the children who are taught are what they are, and Yang Tianbai has grown into a child with a cold personality and does not like to laugh in this strange atmosphere.
Others don't talk much harshly, always with a fierce look when they appear, to tell the truth, watching Yang Tianbai has the feeling of seeing [curse].
Sometimes, people are more terrifying than ghosts. Under the teaching of Yang Jinshan, Yang Tianbai accepted all kinds of family rules and rituals passed down to him by his father and even this society, and became the excellent heir of the dyeing workshop.
From the perspective of clan rights, Ju Dou and nephew Yang Tianqing secretly had an affair, and the two should be immersed in a pig cage. From the perspective of patriarchy, his mother betrayed his father, which made Yang Tianbai feel humiliated; from the perspective of male power, as the heir of the Yang family, his mother's unrequited love was undoubtedly a disgrace to the Yang family.
However, compared with his mother, Yang Tianbai hated his biological father Yang Tianqing more. Perhaps in Yang Tianbai's eyes, the mother who gave birth to him was still a forgiveness of sins, and Yang Tianqing, who humiliated him, deserved to die.
Tianbai only laughed once in the whole film, and when he saw Yang Jinshan struggling and fluttering in the dye pond, the three-year-old Tianbai laughed uncontrollably. Obviously it is a child's innocent smile, but it makes you panic, everything is paved.
The Tianbai here was unintentionally killing Yang Jinshan. When he grew up, Tianbai had the intention of killing his biological father Yang Tianqing.
In the end, Yang Tianbai's personality has long been distorted by this strange family, and he is hateful and pitiful.
Lu Xun said to save children, children like Yang Tianbai also need to be saved.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > under the patriarchal society, Judou is repressed humanity and lust</h1>
The background of the story is that during the reign of the Beiyang warlords, various new cultural movements in the city were in full swing, but in the backward mountain villages, feudal ritual ideas still persecuted countless people.
Yang Jinshan, the owner of the old rich dyeing factory, spent money to buy a young and beautiful woman Ju Dou to pass on to his family. Before Ju Dou, Yang Jinshan had tortured to death the two women he had bought back.
Yang Jinshan is incompetent in personality, the lack of sexual function makes the inheritor of this feudal ritual religion more sensitive and dark, he will change the method every night to torture Ju Dou, he does not treat Ju Dou as a person, only use Ju Dou as a tool for him to vent his sexual desires and have a son.
Ju Dou is not cowardly, she rebelled against fate.
When Ju Dou discovered that Yang Jinshan's nephew Yang Tianqing had a crush on her, she transferred her emotions to Yang Tianqing, not how good Yang Tianqing was, but Yang Tianqing was the only normal man in this dyeing workshop.
After taking Yang Tianqing as the object of entrustment, Ju Dou, who has no emotional sustenance, can change the pain she endures from at least 10 points to 7 points, and what people are most afraid of is to fight alone in the dark. So even if it's suicide, many people like to find a companion.
In the face of Ju Dou's hint, the cowardly Yang Tianqing did not dare to possess his uncle's woman at first, but eventually fell into Ju Dou's active dedication.
The release of lust is an insurmountable temptation for a single stick that has been playing for more than forty years.
After Ju Dou cheated on Yang Tianqing, she hoped that Yang Tianqing could kill Yang Jinshan and completely save herself from water and fire. However, Yang Tianqing's cowardice and kindness eventually led Ju Dou's fate to a complete tragedy.
Compared with Yang Tianqing, who was as timid as a mouse, Ju Dou was bold and brave, when the two took advantage of Yang Jinshan to go out and steal love in the room, there was a burst of noise at the door of the compound, Yang Tianqing who heard the sound was very afraid of panic, ju Dou said that this day was coming sooner or later anyway, there was nothing to fear.
Ju Dou has always been the bravest person in this tragedy. As an old woman, she had to live dependent on men, but at the same time she was also doing everything in her power to minimize her tragedy.
The cheating Ju Dou also gave birth to Yang Tianqing's child, and put a green hat on her incompetent and perverted husband Yang Jinshan. In the face of her green hated husband, Ju Dou has no guilt, but has the pleasure of revenge. Since Yang Jinshan did not treat her as a person, why did she treat Yang Jinshan as a person.
Ju Dou's fate should have ushered in a victorious turn after Yang Jinshan's paralysis, but it continued to be tragic because of Yang Tianqing's cowardice.
The happiness of Ju Dou is always in the hands of men, which is the sadness of women in the old times. Although Yang Tianqing, who controlled Ju Dou's happiness, had a gentler personality than Yang Jinshan, he was still the defender of feudal etiquette.
Therefore, after mistakenly believing that Ju Dou killed Yang Jinshan, Yang Tianqing gave Ju Dou a slap. In his heart, ethical filial piety is the most important.
In the face of Ju Dou's request to elope, Yang Tianqing could only respond with silence.
In the end, if this derailment was not Ju Dou's initiative, the timid and cowardly Yang Tianqing would never send a signal.
The clothes judou wore in the early stage were all yellow, red and other colorful clothes, and the later ones were gray and black, which also reflected her psychological despair from another aspect.
After the death of Ju Dou's husband Yang Jinshan, according to the family rules, Yang Tianqing could no longer live in the dyeing workshop, and he and Ju Dou could only dry firewood in the wild.
When everyone in the village knew about Ju Dou and Yang Tianqing's secret affair, this made Yang Tianbai hate Yang Tianqing and his mother's unkind love, and the two of them were sinners of the Yang family, which stained the dyeing shop with ominous colors.
Yang Tianbai eventually killed his father, and also let Ju Dou, who was completely desperate for this, burn down the big dye house representing the feudal world with a fire.
Ju Dou, who watched the raging fire, finally understood that in this environment that had been brainwashed by feudal etiquette for generations, what she needed to rebel against was not Yang Jinshan alone, but the entire patriarchal society.
That's the saddest thing.