The Story of Qiu ju = Qiuju da guan si

Set in a small Chinese village, ‘The Story of Qiu Ju’ follows one woman’s crusade to seek justice from the village chief who assaults her husband, Qing Lai, after an argument over Qing’s request to build a shed for drying chilies on prime farming land. Her determination leads her to take on the entire Chinese legal system. A departure from Yimou’s earlier visually sumptuous, period dramas ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ and ‘Ju Dou’, this film adopts a plainer visual style and a satrical tone in observations of contemporary Chinese life and its critique of an overblown and hopelessly ineffective government bureacracy. Based on the novel ‘The Wan Family’s Lawsuit’ by Chen Yuan Bin. Cast includes Gong Li and Lei Que Sheng. In Mandarin with English subtitles.