Visionary director Zhang Yimou's finest film is a tale of power,
betrayal and madness. Gong Li stars as the feisty student forced to
marry a traditional Chinese patriarch - a man we never fully see, but on
whose every word hangs the fate of his many wives, who in turn compete
viciously for his favour. The film's intense colours and fierce
geometry have the feel of a lucid dream, which descends unstoppably
into nightmare. Zhang has created a complete, fully realised
cinematic world, in which every detail serves to externalise the
internal. The result is an experience as emotionally devastating as it
is visually breath-taking.
