JU DOU (China, 1990) - Beautiful movie, now available from Imprint, but as part of an 8-film box set (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

I love JU DOU. IMDB describes the plot as, "A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy." Eventually, the young couple determine to murder the old man, and this leads to further tragedy as the young boy becomes a man and learns the truth. The film was shot for 1.37:1, and if you trust DVD Beaver's screen caps even a little, this new transfer is a revelation, having been released on VHS, laser disc and DVD, but never looking good at all.

The huge caveat for me is that the film is only part of an 8-film set that, on the domestic Amazon site, has a price tag of $160. Actually, $20.00 per film is not at all unreasonable, but this would require that I begin squirreling away money for several or even many months, especially since I need to catch up to so many other titles. The rest of the films in the box, none of which I have seen, sound familiar and compelling: RAISE THE RED LANTERN, THE STORY OF QIU JU, TO LIVE, SHANGHI TRIAD, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, etc. I hope that Imprint will, as they have done with the Harryhausen box set, eventually release these titles separately.

See on Amazon

Is anyone biting on this?

 

[bujaki]

I love JU DOU. IMDB describes the plot as, "A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy." Eventually, the young couple determine to murder the old man, and this leads to further tragedy as the young boy becomes a man and learns the truth. The film was shot for 1.37:1, and if you trust DVD Beaver's screen caps even a little, this new transfer is a revelation, having been released on VHS, laser disc and DVD, but never looking good at all.

The huge caveat for me is that the film is only part of an 8-film set that, on the domestic Amazon site, has a price tag of $160. Actually, $20.00 per film is not at all unreasonable, but this would require that I begin squirreling away money for several or even many months, especially since I need to catch up to so many other titles. The rest of the films in the box, none of which I have seen, sound familiar and compelling: RAISE THE RED LANTERN, THE STORY OF QIU JU, TO LIVE, SHANGHI TRIAD, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, etc. I hope that Imprint will, as they have done with the Harryhausen box set, eventually release these titles separately.

See on Amazon

Is anyone biting on this?

I did because they're all excellent films. Haven't had time to explore the contents of the box. I've seen the films before.

 

[Ray H]

I bought the set as well, all blind buys except for The Curse of the Golden Flower. Been meaning to watch these films since the early 2000s, but most were only available on poor quality DVDs.

 

[Martin_Teller]

The Story of Qiu Ju is one of my all-time faves... Golden Flower is the only dud in the set (haven't seen Coming Home) and even that one isn't terrible or anything. Still, too much money for me. I'd buy a standalone of Qiu Ju, and I'd love a release of Not One Less (not included in this set because Gong Li isn't in it).

 

[bujaki]

Coming Home=Masterpiece.

 

[B-ROLL]

I first heard about this set from that Canadian based disc review site.

I believe first two reviews may be insightful on the Amazon site:

 

[jayembee]

I love JU DOU. [snip]

The huge caveat for me is that the film is only part of an 8-film set that, on the domestic Amazon site, has a price tag of $160. Actually, $20.00 per film is not at all unreasonable, but this would require that I begin squirreling away money for several or even many months, especially since I need to catch up to so many other titles. The rest of the films in the box, none of which I have seen, sound familiar and compelling: RAISE THE RED LANTERN, THE STORY OF QIU JU, TO LIVE, SHANGHI TRIAD, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, etc. I hope that Imprint will, as they have done with the Harryhausen box set, eventually release these titles separately.

First of all, Imprint hasn't released any Harryhausen. Technically. That was Via Vision, which is the parent company of Imprint. I don't believe that Imprint has released any individual titles from any of their box sets.

Anyway, there's a separate release of Ju Dou that I have and looks terrific. It's a South Korean release from Nova Media:

BLU-RAY / JU DOU (DIRECTOR - YIMOU ZHANG) - NOVA MNM

novamnm.com

For what it's worth, I do plan on getting the Zhang set from Imprint. Ju Dou and Curse of the Golden Flower are the only titles in the set that I have on Blu-ray. I do want all of the others.