Passionate ‘Ju Dou’ Leads UC Irvine’s Fall Film Series

The fearful wife in “Ju Dou” has a good reason for wanting an affair: Her husband, a real beast of a guy, murdered his earlier wives when they failed to give him a son. When pregnancy eludes her, she turns to the man’s nephew, hoping he’ll provide the right chemistry.

The plan works but the lovers’ heat, and boldness, escalate quickly. Village life can get pretty lusty and “Ju Dou” (1989), which launches UC Irvine’s “Love and Madness” fall film series tonight, becomes a tale of passion wrapped in silk and blossoms.

Actually, the plot makes Zhang Yimou’s movie sound more racy than it really is. This Chinese take on American “love triangle” pictures (“The Postman Always Rings Twice” comes to mind) was watched closely by the Chinese government, and officials reportedly prevented Yimou from being explicit. There’s little nudity, and the sexuality often is more suggested than described.

Still, “Ju Dou” has its sparks, mainly because Yimou and his actors are so fiery in their hints at desire. Gong Li as Ju Dou and Li Baotian as Tianqing, the nephew, are nearly as stylized as Noh performers as they convey the blaze of passion. Yimou and cinematographer Gu Changwei give the film a blatant voluptuous quality. Color and shadow become almost symbolic of sensuality; the couple’s embraces occur in a dye-works where sheaths of red and yellow silk stream down through filtered light.

There’s also a perversity to the movie that can be fascinating. The affair between Ju Dou and Tianqing is energized when the husband (Li Wei) becomes paralyzed and is unable to seek revenge; they flaunt their affair in front of him.

But their child (played by Zhang Yi as an infant and Zheng Jian as a youth) knows what’s going on and doesn’t like it a bit. He becomes more menacing with each new year, a curse somehow left behind by the cuckolded husband.

* “Ju Dou” (1989) by Zhang Yimou is being shown today at 7 and 9 p.m. in Student Center’s Crystal Cove Auditorium. $2-$4. (714) 856-6379.

‘LOVE AND MADNESS’

UC Irvine Fall

Film Series:

* Oct. 1: “Ju Dou” by Zhang Yimou.

* Oct. 8: “Lilith” by Robert Rossen.

* Oct. 15: “Pandora’s Box” by G.W. Pabst.

* Oct. 22: “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” by Pedro Almodovar.

* Oct. 29: “The Devils” by Ken Russell.

* Nov. 5: “Woman in the Dunes” by Hiroshi Teshigahara.

* Nov. 12: “Woman is a Woman” by Jean-Luc Godard.

* Nov. 19: “Summer with Monika” by Ingmar Bergman.

* Dec. 3: “Betty Blue” by Jean-Jacques Beinex.

All screenings will be at 7 and 9 p.m. in the UCI Student Center’s Crystal Cove Auditorium except for “Summer with Monika” which will be shown in the Social Science Hall. $2--$4. (714) 856-6379.