Gong Li Movie:

		List Price: $19.95		Label: Sony Pictures Salesrank: 14031 Released: January 17, 1995
		Our Price: $3.00
		Used Price: $2.88
		MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: VHS Tape

Editorial Review:
In this remarkable film about a woman obsessed with exacting an apology from the chief of her small village, director Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern) tells a deceptively simple story with incredible art. When Wang Shantang (Lei Laosheng), the chief, kicks a chili farmer, Quinglai (Liu Peiqi), between the legs, all the farmer's wife, Qiu Ju (Gong Li), wants is an apology. The chief's reticence sends Qiu Ju on a misguided journey through the legal system in search of satisfaction. What she gets, however, is a harsh lesson in "be careful of what you ask for." In the end she finds that life can frustrate our attempts at harmony in the simplest, cruelest ways. Among the most notable aspects of this film are the marvelous performances by Gong Li and her supporting cast. As an example of artistic storytelling, this film is as close to flawless as one is likely to find. If you haven't yet discovered Zhang Yimou, you have a real treat in store. --James McGrath

The Story of Qiu Ju [VHS] Reviews:
startling denouement highlights cultural divergency
2009-12-08 -
"The Story of Qiu Ju" features a very recognizable cultural stock figure. Gong Li plays the wife of a man who has been injured by a local official. While they are offered a small settlement, Qiu Ju refuses to accept it and so, basically, takes on the system. This is Silkwood or Phillip Seymour Hoffman taking on the tobacco industry or Mr. Smith in Washington or on and on and on. We all know this character, the plucky underdog who refuses to give up and who, through grit and determination and with an unshakeable conviction in the rightness of their cause fight overwhelming odds, never giving up until finally, at the very end, truth and justice triumph. The faceless bureaucrats lose and our hero carries the day. But this movie was made in China. They also know this character but they view this person in a completely different light. In Chinese society this person is "The Troublemaker." They don't know when to stop. They don't recognize the good that people are trying to do them. They don't appreciate the positions of others. In "The Story of Qiu Ju," the progressively more important officials that take time out of their busy schedules to hear out Qiu Ju are portrayed sympathetically. They listen. They want to help. They extend themselves (one of the highest actually squires Qiu Ju around in his limo, helping her find her way in an unfamiliar city.) In the end, and I don't want to give away too much, Qiu Ju herself is made to confront the fundamental error of her ways and she profoundly regrets the trouble she has caused. I watched this movie with my wife, who is Chinese and at a certain point we both knew how the movie was going to end: I was shocked and she was bored. Enjoy it.

The story of Qui Ju
2009-12-06 - this is one of my favourite Gong Li films which I have never been able to find in Australia. So being able to buy it though Amazon has allowed me to enjoy this film years after I last saw it. It tells the story of a peasant woman in contempoaray China taking on the buracracy. It's great!!!

Persistence Pays
2009-11-19 - Of this Movie, Janet Mason from The New York Times says, "SUPERB...The story of Qiu Ju reaffirms Zhang Yimou's stature as a story teller and visual artist of exceptional delicacy and insight". International film sensation GONG LI (Memoirs of a Geisha) gives a luminous performance as Qiu Ju, a stoic peasant woman who demands an apology when her husband is humiliated by the village Chief. But the Chief is a headstrong man who refuses to apologise, sending Qiu Ju on a futile trek through the complicated Chinese judicial system. From her small village, to a nearby city and finally to the large and impersonal district court, hers is a universal battle against bureaucracy and indifference. Winner of Best Picture and Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, THE STORY OF QIU JU is "funny, touching, surprising, provocative and entertaining every step of the way".-David Sterritt, The Christian Science Monitor.

Another brilliant window into China
2009-10-24 - I have been impressed by all the films that I have seen directed by Zhang Yimou. In his films I not only have learned a great deal about China but have also been reminded or instructed about universal truths.

"The Story of Qiu Ju" brings the viewer into rural China and the perspective of a farming and tradition-minded populace interacting with Communist governance, including the limitations on child-bearing, the police and legal system, and the new, growing urban culture. I have a richer and I suspect accurate impression of China as a result of Zhang Yimou's intelligent artistry.

Alongside this almost documentary-like (yet superior to any documentary I can think of) portrayal of contemporary China, the director also presents a deeply moving and instructive account of the consequences of harmful human behaviors, behaviors that most of us (all of us?) indulge in frequently with little thought to the pain we are causing those around us. In Qui Ju the circumstances are comic and would remain so did we not see how sadly they play out at the film's end. A refusal by the village leader to apologize for hurting a man coupled with an equally stubborn refusal by the man's wife Qiu Ju to let go of her grievance bears bitter fruit for all concerned.

It is not the stuff of major tragedy but rather the expression of real, every day minor tragedies that makes "The Story of Qiu Ju" so poignant and powerful. See this film to learn more about China, but see it also to get a fresh vision of the sorrow of missed opportunities when people fail to forgive.

Full of beauty and suspense. . .but can we be aware of it
2009-09-29 - A beautiful, quiet movie full of significant conflict, of necessary rapprochement, of long-term loyalty. But, I worry, will today's audience see the beauty and sense the substance of this movie through the quiet?
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[An angry aside: What is happening film makers of the west? Why do I have to search so far(away from the trash--no temptation is the better word)far away from the comic book superheros, the special effects showcases, the remakes of remakes of mediocre movies, the overly-long adaptations of books (Dr. Suess's books!?!), of bathroom humor (have we graduated from 6th-grade yet?) . . .
A warning; a forecast: Eventually, I will disconnect the DVD player (or use it far less frequently; I have already disconnected the cable television.) and return solely to reading. But my optimistic self believes this is just what our overly-volted bodies now need. . .We need, as Clifton Fadiman wrote in The Lifetime Reading Plan, to "disenthrall" ourselves from the contemporary.]