The Story Of Qiu Ju (1992)

Sometimes all a person really wants isn't money or revenge, but simply to hear the words "I'm sorry." Zhang Yimou's "The Story of Qiu Ju" revolves entirely around a kick that's never shown on screen. It's winter in a remote village in China's Shaanxi province, and the pregnant Qiu Ju (Gong Li) is married to easygoing farmer Qinglai (Liu Peiqi). When the village chief, Wang (Lei Laosheng), kicks her husband during an argument, Qiu Ju sets out to make sure Qinglai gets medical care, and justice. Bundled in a bulky coat, her face half hidden behind a thick scarf, the strong-willed woman, joined by her sister-in-law Meizi (Yang Liuchun), travels farther and farther afield in search of someone who can make Wang apologize. She asked him, and he refused. Everyone agrees the chief was in the wrong, but every official she meets passes her along to someone else. Along the way, the couple is offered compensation for medical bills and lost wages, but an apology proves as elusive as a dragonfly in December. Taking cues from both Frank Capra ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington") and Vittorio De Sica ("Bicycle Thieves"), and shooting many scenes with hidden cameras and nonprofessional actors, Zhang portrays modern China as a place where bureaucrats run the show and ordinary citizens, especially women, bear the consequences. Fortunately, some people are more persistent than others, and the film is far from a tragedy. Just as their fifth collaboration marks one of Zhang's rare contemporary stories, the dressed-down title role was a departure for Gong, his romantic partner at the time. The gamble paid off. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Gong took home Best Actress, and it remains one of their most treasured collaborations.