I HATE Dionisio's character in this movie. He is such an idiot! I hate the way he thinks he is so much better than everyone now that he has money and how he treats Bernarda like an amulet. The book (El gallo de oro) is better, his character is more toned down.
shareif the actor (Ernesto Gómez Cruz) made you to HATE Dionisio's character in this movie then I cannot see a bigger compliment for him and for Arturo Ripstein (Director), because that was the main INTENTION of the director and actor: To make Dionisio a selfish, greedy, ignorant, egotist prick. One person you'd love to HATE.
That's the main difference with Roberto Gavaldón version of Juan Rulfo "short story". "El gallo de oro" remains in the world of the "magic realism" created by Rulfo and then adapted to the screen by no others than Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez. So you had 3 of the most important writers of the XX century in any language, and some of the most visible heads of the "magic-realism" movement, involved in a movie directed by Gavaldón.
Ripstein remake (El imperio de la fortuna) whose screenplay was written by his wife Paz Alicia Garciadiego, leaves the "magic world" from the previous film and enters into a obscure world, depicted with gritty realism, dark, disgusting, shocking, far from any "fairy tale" references.
Both versions are great, but they are quite different. If you like the matgic-realism then the 1st one is for you, if you are fan of dark realistic stories, then this one is for you.
I liked both almost equally, but perhaps I am most a fan of magical-realism.