Film Review
– The Story of Qiu Ju
“The
story of Qiu Ju” directed by Zhang Yi Mou is the movie that I choose to share. This
film was a 1992 Chinese comedy-drama film. Artist Gong Li was the main
character in this movie. The screenplay is an adaption of Chen Yuan Bin’s novel
“The
Wan Family’s Lawsuit”.
Zhang Yi
Mou is one of the well-known directors of the Chinese fifth generation and one
of the most influential and respected people today. In 1950, he was born in the
city of Xi An in Shaanxi Province in 1950. His father was an officer in Chiang
Kai-shek's Kuomintang Army and one of his brothers was accused of being a spy,
while another fled to Taiwan. During the 1950s, his family's background was
suspect and during the convulsive tumult of the Cultural Revolution of the
1960s, it was criminal. Zhang was pulled out of high school and sent to toil
with the peasants. Later, he transferred to a textile factory. While working
there, Zhang reportedly sold his own blood to buy his first camera.
In 1992, he
released “The Story of Qiu Ju”, about a pregnant peasant women seeking legal
justice after her husband is beaten by a village chief. Instead of rigidly
framed images featuring carefully modulated colour, this film, set in
modern-day Shaanxi province, adopted a gritty quasi-documentary look that used
long tracking shots. Although setting a film in contemporary China was a
significant political risk, the government approved of “The Story of Qiu Ju”,
largely because it coincided with an anti-corruption campaign.
In the
movie, Qiu Ju is a peasant who lives in a small farming enclave with her
husband Qing Lai. She is in the final trimester of her pregnancy. One day while
her husband is conversing to Wang Shan Tang, the head of the village, a
miscommunication ensues. The leader is insulted by his insult and beats Qing Lai,
kicking him so severely that he must see a doctor and remain absent from work.
Qiu Ju goes to the local police office and complains. The policeman makes the
village chief pay 200 yuan to Qing Lai. But the village chief insultingly
throws the 200 yuan notes onto the ground and refuses to apologize. Qiu Ju then
goes to the provincial capital accompanied by her husbands' younger sister, Mei
Zi. By luck the two women find lodging at a cheap hotel. The two women meet the
district police chief and he promises them that their case will be reviewed.
The new verdict from the district
police is that this time the village chief must pay 250 yuan. He still refuses
to apologize and so Qiu Ju goes back to the town and finds a lawyer who takes
the case and files suit under a new law. The case is judged by the court as
having been correctly resolved by the district, the fine remains at 250 yuan,
Qiu Ju is unhappy but all she can do is make yet another appeal to an even
higher level of police investigation. As part of the suit, officials come to the
village and Qiu Ju's husband is X-rayed at the local hospital.
In the middle of winter, Qiu Ju
goes into labour. When she sought help, the village chief brought along a group
of local men carries Qiu Ju to the hospital, where she gives birth safely to a
healthy baby boy.
A month later the whole village
is invited to the "one month party" for the baby. Qiu Ju and her
husband invite the village chief too for his help in saving Qiu Ju's life. But
he doesn't come, and the local policeman shows up to tell Qiu Ju that the
X-rays revealed her husband had a broken rib. As a result, the village chief is
being sent to jail on a fifteen-day-term. Qiu Ju tries to stop the police from
taking the village chief away but never even sees the police and the movie ends
with Qiu Ju looking anguished.
Zhang Yi Mou poses many questions
about justice in this film, but the core of those questions involves what our
notions are, and what they entail. He throws into question the idea of an
objective judicial process, and shows us why that is necessary, as well as why
the kind of justice Qiu Ju sought was and is impossible to enforce through
government.
Many people may get frustrated
with Qiu Ju. Going to such extremities for a simple apology seems foolish.
However, we must take into consideration our personal biases. Most in this
country are accustomed to the idea of money, jail time, and community service
as a form of justice. However, Zhang Yi Mou reflects on a system when an apology
was worth more than money. A time when people knew their neighbors personally.
He might be telling us that there was a better system than the one we live in
today. That we shouldn't forget the good qualities of the old system.
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