Why do you think the old husband didn't tell the villagers about Ju Dou and Tianqing having an affair? From embarrassment?
Also, does anyone know the name of the song sung over the end credits (it's sung by children, and might be a revolutionary song or something, but I donno)?
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1- i could be wrong, but i think that he had no way to prove it. i mean its his word against tianqings and judou's, so its was pointless for him to say anything. and yes, i also think because it would of been embarrassing to reveal that his wife had an affair and his nephew is the father of his child and not him.
2- no. but i think its the song thats sung throughout the movie by tianqing and judou to tianbai. something about kids, or whatever, you remember?
I agree with the first answer.
the second answer, during the film, there's a scene which we see some children playing jumping ropes, it was the same song they were singing at the time. and like lanternraiser said, it's been repeated throughout the film to calm tianbai down. it's a children's folk song about travelling. nothing revolutionary.
my question is why were they stupid enough to leave tianbai with the oldman at first? and then they give him 2 sticks to move around after putting him in that bucket-wheelchair??? such dumb things to do. Well, I guess they were uneducated country folks, didn't really have brains.
This story in Ju Dou should not be read on a solely realistic level. It is allegorical to the basic progression of history in China of the 20th century: the fall of the old empire and the last dynasty, the bloodshed of the revolution and civil war, and the eventual self destruction of the counrtry with the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.
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sorry, the movie is not an allegory. It is merely a description of the brutal traditions of them old regime. It has nothing to do with the communist era, definitely not the cultural revolution in any way. If you think so, ottffse, explain your idea.
shareThe main question I have is why were they referring to Tianbai (the little boy) as Tianquan's (the nephew) brother. If the little boy was supposed to be the child of his uncle and aunt then it would make the little boy his cousin.
I think that had more to do with the fact that everyone in the village with the last name of Yang was considered family, whether they were actually related or not. Hence, they were all "brothers" (which of course, makes no sense considering that everyone refers to Jinshan and Tianqing as uncle/nephew, though, in the film, apparently they aren't really uncle/nephew, but they are in the book).
But yes, when watching this movie just this past week, I wondered the same thing. Either the subtitles got it wrong, or there's something I'm missing. In the book, Tianbai and Tianqing were always referenced as cousins.
I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the way my Chinese teacher kept trying to say that Tianqing and Ju Dou's relationship was incestuous? His reasoning was that Tianqing and Jinshan may or may not have been blood related. But what does that have to do with anything? Ju Dou isn't a blood relation.
So, in the context of the film, he is having a relationship with a woman that just got married to a guy that, although called his uncle, is of no relation to him.
Therefore, it is not incest.
Anyway, all I'm saying is, if Chinese culture says that that relationship is incestual, then perhaps there are ideas about family that I do not know about or understand, hence why they would call what we would call cousing "brothers."
Maybe?
I think its considered anti communism and about the negatives of the great leap forward because the director came out of a school infamous for their semi propagandish anti government messages. So it can be assumed this follows that thread and then worked out from there.
The song is definitly repeated throughout the movie.
He is called his brother by jinshan because Jin wanted to make it clear to the young Taindai that tianqin was not his father. Also Jin is a strong father figure for Tianqin, as in adopted, so thats how they get the pseudo relationship of brothers.
He probably didn't tell because of embarrassment and the loss of his heir. Plus Tianqing may have killed him. He also probably did not interact with the other townsfolk often.
lastly, I also noticed the incredibly stupidity of leaving the child alone with him even after he tried to kill it and of Judou sleeping in the same bed has Jin after he proved himself dangerous. They just did not treat him like the threat he proved to be many times, with the fire and the attacks.
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as kladownetf explained, there's probably a misunderstanding in the translation. the word "que1" means elder brother, but it can also be referred to as (a shortened version of) elder male cousin. in the movie it's used as the latter.
tianqing is actually not related to jinshan or the yang family at all, as he was only taken in, or sort of adopted by jinshan (who was initially a neighbor) after tianqing's parents died when he was young. this is how the uncle/nephew relation comes about, despite the fact that they are not related by blood.
i guess i understand why your teacher refers to the relationship between Tq and Jd as incestuous... although by definition due to the lack of blood relations it is not an incest, their nominal "family relation" as aunt and nephew is uneasy enough in a feudal society.
this is partly related to tianbai's reaction at the end: after knowing that tianqing is his birth father he couldn't accept it because it is considered incestuous and wrong by the standard of a traditional and feudalistic society where the hierarchy of relations between family members should be clear and upheld, instead of being usurped (even nominally) as the case of jd and tq.
For those of you who might still be wondering: The thing about Tianqing and Tianbai being referred to as brothers is somewhat a translation error. The chinese term for "older brother" is the same as "older cousin" (same thing with younger brother and younger cousin).
shareIt is an allegory, all of Zhang Yimou's films are allegories intended to expose and criticize and deconstruct unsavory elements of Chinese culture and tradition and politics.
Yimou himself stated that Ju Dou (Judou) allegorized the Tian'anmen Square massacre, he wanted to allegorize the cycle of violence that resulted from feudalism and revolution in 20th-century China.
At the time of the film's release, it was banned in China because of the parallel. The government and Chinese Film Bureau accused of him of engaging in "national nihilism" for making the film, even though the Bureau later championed the film to the American Academy Award Committee for Oscar consideration.
agree on temporaryone-1 that zhang yimou's film always talked about chinese old tradition and politic by looking at his bigining of making films.
why old man didnt tell anyone the affair. i guess it's the chinese culture that old man didnt want to lose his face. it was a family embarrasment. well, i am not really sure. who's chinese can explain?
I think not! Whatever else the director of the opening Olympic opening ceremony may be, he's never been that political.
If Zhang has ever produced an "allegory" for any audience, and I don't absolutely deny he ever has, it's never been for the benefit of westerners. Possibly for the Chinese, but I'd be bloody surprised.
And rumours of the bannings of his films always seem to be much exaggerated on IMDB.
He makes great films for those who like that sort of thing - I admit, me, for instance - but his political impact, if he ever had one, would be very limited.
Sorry, stopfief, but you're quite wrong...
Although Yimou Zhang has obviously been "rehabilitated" (the Olympic stuff was incredible!), "Huozhe" {(To Live) (1994)} is banned in mainland China to this day...(see the film, dude!)
He's like the Chinese Shostakovich ... he manages to get away with tweaking their noses from time to time -- while producing masterpiece after masterpiece -- can't kill the guy; can't even exile him.
A National Treasure.