Oppressed, divided women in 1920s China, as viewed through the placid, studied, carefully balanced, caressingly lit images of Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, Ju Dou). These are so intoxicatingly, swooningly pretty as to cast doubts on the strength of the director's convictions. Gong Li, as the Fourth Mistress in the house of a blueblooded nobleman (whom we never get a good, close look at, so as to underscore his remoteness), suffers sullenly rather than stoically, dispatching silent editorials. (1991) — Duncan Shepherd
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