Being the first Chinese film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Ju Dou mainly depicts a woman named Ju Dou who is in the feudal ethical code and quagmire of feudal superstition in the struggle to carry out resistance in early 20th century rural China. Ju Dou is adapted from the well-known Chinese novel “The Obsessed”, written by Liu Heng. Famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou directed this film with Yang Fengliang. Zhang has his own unique version of artistic expression and color combinations. His characteristic of director's art is incorporated in this film. Ju Dou is a typical oriental cinema that combines oriental beauty and traditional oriental social conflicts. The film successfully depicts a Chinese-style tragedy in a feudal setting using a large number of contrasting techniques. The film applies contrast techniques mainly in its characterizations, color application and metaphorical expressions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “Ju Dou” is not only the title of the film, but also the name of the main character. The story begins while Yang Tianqing is returning to his uncle's house. The uncle called Yang Jinshan runs a business, which is a dye house to dye fabrics for the villagers, in his house. Someone tells Tianqing that Jinshan just bought a new wife. The new wife is Ju Dou. Jinshan tortured two previous wives to death. For Ju Dou, Jinshan lets her work in the dye house during the day and tortures her at night. He really wants Ju Dou to have a son as successor for his big family and dry cleaner too. Because Ju Dou is a young and beautiful woman, Tianqing can't help but start paying a lot of attention to the young aunt. He discovers her beach area and spies on it in the morning. Furthermore, because Jinshan is incapable of being a real man, Ju Dou feels the same way about Tianqing as Tianqing feels about her. They soon begin sexual intercourse. Until Ju Dou gives birth to a boy called Tianbai, Jinshan does not notice what happened between his wife and his nephew and thinks that the boy is his son. When Jinshan discovers the relationship between Ju Dou and Tianqing, he wants to kill Tianbai and fails. Ironically, one day, when Jinshan carelessly falls into the dye vat, Tianbai just smiles and stares at him as he struggles, even though Tianbai has called Jinshan "father" for years. After Jinshan's death, Tianqing has to leave the house to avoid arousing suspicion. They still meet in different places and have sex. However, Tianbai hears someone whisper that her mother and "brother" are having secret dates in the field. As a teenager filled with anger, he vigorously rejects Tianqing. Ultimately, Tianbai drowns Tianqing in the dye vat and Ju Dou then burns the mill. The technical characterizations outline two typical types of characteristics against the penetration of Chinese feudal society and make the tragedy more realistic. For the heroine, when Ju Dou's face first appears on the screen, we see a woman wearing yellow clothes and twisting her hair into a loose bun like an ordinary woman in labor. She is beautiful. His eyes look innocent with a tenderness like water. Such a traditional characteristic of rural woman makes the audience feel that she could be very kind and obedient like many other women of that era. When he tells Tianqing that he keeps his virgin and calls Jinshan an “old thing,” we discover his rebellion and potential ambition. In Chinese feudal society, although Jinshan and Tianqing have no blood ties, the illicit sexual relationship between Ju Dou andTianqing is considered to have committed incest. Such behavior is strictly prohibited and commits enormous sins, especially for Ju Dou. The reason is that women at that time are in a low position and must be submissive to men. There is no doubt that Ju Dou is different because she wishes to rebel against a woman's destiny arranged by men and break through traditional social restrictions to get what she really wants. He's a character you could almost say is a bit edgy. When he thinks that Jinshan's existence may threaten their peaceful life, he thought of killing Jinshan and never showed sympathy for Jinshan's disability. She thinks that the fact that Tianqing is Tianbai's father is real, so it is indisputable to tell the fact to Tianbai regardless of what happens. It is an extreme characteristic that opposes traditional women. She shakes off the shackles of the old system to fall in love with her husband's nephew and never feels guilty in this kind of environment. For Tianqing, he is an opposite figure to Ju Dou. In a male-dominated society, Tianqing is cowardice. He obeys his uncle almost absolutely. However, it is not in his nature to be obedient. He has his own desires and thoughts, but he simply does not dare to react. When he has feelings for Ju Dou, he simply spies on her through the small hole and watches her closely with silent attention. At night, when Jinshan tortures Ju Dou, Tianqing becomes angry but can't do anything. There is a scene where Tianqing can't suppress her anger upon hearing Ju Dou's scream, so one night she takes an axe. When he is too excited to try to cut the wooden ladder, Jinshan suddenly stops and asks what happened outside. At that moment, Tianqing comes to her senses and realizes what she just did. His facial expression shows his fear and loss. It seems that even he himself is surprised by his previous behavior. The plot tells the audience that Tianqing has her emotions and thoughts deep in her mind, but she simply dares not show them. It is because he is still bound by the feudal code of ethics. The contrast between Ju Dou's prowess and Tianqing's weakness is very interesting because in such a dark age in China, a woman bears more chains than a man. The film tends to use contrast to satirize feudalism. Ju Dou has said several times that he wants to leave the village with Tianqing and Tianbai, so they could have a new life. However, Tianqing does not have enough courage to start over. Furthermore, he believes that if they leave, the villagers and relatives will realize their incest. Tianqing is so afraid of being condemned by the public. Very early there is a traditional popular saying that “a woman was to be subordinate to her father in youth, to her husband in maturity and to her son in old age”. As Ju Dou's actual husband, Tianqing has never been as courageous as Ju Dou is in opposing society. His weak personality is one of the reasons leading to Ju Dou's tragedy. It is a satire to the patriarchal society that men get dominated power but cannot be powerful when they should be. The film ingeniously portrays two contrasting main characters to make the Chinese-style tragedy rational, clearly structured and meaningful. The color contrast in the film helps to strengthen the tragic flavor. Zhang is really good at applying colors. At the beginning of the film, when Tianqing leads the horse home, the sky looks like a mix of gray and white. It is also reflected in the first sentence of the novel, which is "The sky is foggy, just like an egg yolk dipped in pumpkin soup" (Liu Heng, 5). Thick mists enveloped people in those years of feudalism.Zhang uses colors to be in harmony with the development of textures. In the first half of the film, the main tone is red. And then gradually moves to blue gray. When Ju Dou and Tianqing are together, have sex and feel happy to imagine a better life in the future, the tone is red. When Tianbai calls Jinshan “father,” the tone is somber. It seems that the director gives the scenes in which the main characters are hopeful bright color tones, and gives the scenes in which the characters are too helpless to break through dark color tones. Such contrast between bright tone and dark tone makes the audience feel excited to be suppressed by the change of colors. The strongest color contrast is between the bright colors of the dyed fabrics and the white of the walls and the black tiles of the roof. Variety digs deeper into the choice of location, which is a dye house, the director wants to express different meanings to the audience with the help of different colors. The fabrics hanging in the dry cleaners are always in bright colors, which creates a stark contrast to the audience when the bright colors are spread across the black and white courtyard. The white wall and black tiles represent the depressing feudal environment. The brightly colored fabrics represent the spirit of revolt of the main characters. Otherwise, in the beginning, Ju Dou often uses yellow and white colors. These colors are not strong but warm colors so that the scenes look calm. When Ju Dou finds that Tianqing is looking at her, there is a blue cloth behind her. Blue is also bright, but belongs to the cold tone. The cold tone conveys the information to the audience that Ju Dou still remains rational and calm when he sees Tianqing, which means that Ju Dou still has no feelings for Tianqing. When Ju Dou sobs to Tianqing that he no longer wants to live like this with Jinshan, he grabs a red cloth. The red color is warm, bright and fierce, representing the passion and hope of the main characters. Against the black and white surroundings, the bright fabrics coordinate to tell a story that shouldn't happen in the big house. Plus, the bright colors make the entire yard feel like it's covered in a mist of warm, delicate colors. The color red is actually the most prominent color used in the film. It also contains the contrastive method of making art tragic. When Ju Dou and Tianqing finally have a sexual relationship, Ju Dou coincidentally kicks down the stick holding the wooden wheel, the red cloth falls into the dye vat filled with red dye. The scene which is presented with extraordinary artistic beauty demonstrates that the two characters are free from the constraining powers of society. When Tianbai is born, he is wrapped in red swaddling clothes, symbolizing the joy of a newborn. In these parts that use red, red conveys positive emotions to us as viewers. In China, red has an implicit meaning of luck. The Chinese use the color red in many ways on joyous occasions. However, the director still gives the red dye some opposite meanings such as blood, death and desperation in some later scenes. The two most impressive scenes are when Jinshan and Tianqing drown in the dye vat. They both struggle with the red dye. The red liquid is like blood surrounding them. Furthermore, in the Tianqing drowning scene, a red cloth falls into the tub very quickly. In the previous comfortable scenes, red brings joy and hope of rebirth. On the contrary, in the last two depressing scenes, red strikes the audience's eyes and awakens their minds. The color gives a terrible sight. Furthermore, the contrast of the same objects with different metaphorical meanings applied in the film emphasizes that the characters are still too weak to save fate.