The Wooden Man's Bride
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''The Wooden Man's Bride'' () is a 1994 Chinese film directed by the fifth-generation filmmaker
Huang Jianxin Huang Jianxin (born 14 June 1954) is a Chinese filmmaker. He also writes film scripts under the pen name Huang Xin. He is normally considered part of the fifth generation of Chinese filmmakers (a group that includes Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and T ...
. The film is Huang's fifth feature and the first of his films to be released in the United States. The film was also the first film shot in Mainland China to be entirely financed by Taiwanese producers. The film stars both Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese actors, and was based on the novel by
Jia Pingwa Jia Pingwa (born 21 February 1952) is one of China's most popular authors of novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. His best-known novels include ''Ruined City'', which was banned by the State Publishing Administration for over 17 year ...
. ''The Wooden Man's Bride'' was something of a departure for the director,
Huang Jianxin Huang Jianxin (born 14 June 1954) is a Chinese filmmaker. He also writes film scripts under the pen name Huang Xin. He is normally considered part of the fifth generation of Chinese filmmakers (a group that includes Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and T ...
, whose earlier works were modern-day satires on bureaucracy as in the black comedy, ''
The Black Cannon Incident ''The Black Cannon Incident'' () is a 1985 Chinese black comedy film satirizing the bureaucracy and paranoia of the Chinese authorities. Presented by Xi'an Film Studio and directed by Huang Jianxin, it stars Gao Ming, Gerhard Olschewski, and Li ...
'', and the science-fiction dystopia in ''
Dislocation In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sli ...
''.


Plot

Set in the 1920s during China's
Warlord Era The Warlord Era was the period in the history of the Republic of China between 1916 and 1928, when control of the country was divided between rival Warlord, military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions. It began after the de ...
, ''The Wooden Man's Bride'' is a romance film between two unlikely people from different classes. A young woman, known only as "Young Mistress" (
Wang Lan Wang Lan (; 1922–2003) was a Taiwanese writer, artist and a National Assembly of the Republic of China deputy. He is famous for the novel '' Blue and Black'', which is considered one of four major novels about anti-Japanese war. See also *Taiwan ...
), is on her way to meet her future husband for the first time when her procession is attacked by sword-wielding bandits in the desert. A servant, Kui ( Chang Shih) recklessly takes off after the bandits who have kidnapped the young mistress and taken her back to their lair. When he arrives, Kui impresses the chief of the bandits ( Kao Mingjun), who allows Kui to take the Young Mistress back. Meanwhile, word has reached the Young Mistress's fiancé of her capture. Preparing to engage in a thrilling rescue, the hapless young man accidentally sets off an explosion, killing him. When Young Mistress finally arrives, she faces her fiancé's imperious mother ( Wang Yumei), who forces the young woman to undergo arcane tests of purity to determine whether she is worthy to marry the (now dead) bridegroom. When Young Mistress passes these tests, she is forced to marry the titular "wooden man", a wood-carved statue of her late fiancé. Forced into a life she does not want, Young Mistress tries and fails to escape from her new home. She finds solace in her growing friendship with her one-time hero, Kui, a friendship that soon blossoms into an illicit love affair. When the affair is discovered, Kui is banished from the mill, and Madame Liu has the Young Mistress's legs broken to prevent escape. Kui, however, is determined to rescue his love once more. He returns to the bandit's lair to find the chief dead, and becomes the bandits' new leader. A year after he leaves, Kui returns with the bandits to claim Young Mistress. He allows Madame Liu to commit suicide by hanging herself, then burns the house down, taking Young Mistress away with him.


Cast

*
Wang Lan Wang Lan (; 1922–2003) was a Taiwanese writer, artist and a National Assembly of the Republic of China deputy. He is famous for the novel '' Blue and Black'', which is considered one of four major novels about anti-Japanese war. See also *Taiwan ...
as Young Mistress, the film's headstrong heroine and the titular "Wooden Man's Bride". * Chang Shih as Kui, a peasant-servant who first saves the Young Mistress from the bandits and later becomes her lover. * Kao Mingjun as Chief Tang, the charismatic leader of the bandits who kidnap Young Mistress. * Wang Yumei as Madame Liu, the imperious mother of Young Mistress's fiancé. Madame Liu's husband died twenty years earlier, leaving her in charge of a
tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...
mill. *
Wang Fuli Wang Fuli ( Chinese: 王馥荔; born 12 November 1949) is a Chinese actress. Wang was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, and her ancestral hometown was Tianjin. She graduated from Jiangsu Drama College in 1967, majoring in Peking Opera. Wang l ...
as Sister Ma, Madame Liu's devoted housemaid.


International reception

Western critics warmly received Huang's shift into the historical drama film. One early review during its premiere at the
International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...
found the film to be a "ravishing spectacle", though not necessarily groundbreaking, especially in light of similar films such as
Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou (; born 14 November 1950) is a Chinese filmmaker.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retrieved 21 August 2008. A leading figure of China's Cinem ...
's 1990 drama, ''
Ju Dou ''Ju Dou'' () is a 1990 film directed by Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang, starring Gong Li as the title character. The film, based on the novel ''Fuxi, Fuxi'' (伏羲伏羲) by Liu Heng, is a tragedy that revolves around Ju Dou, a beautiful you ...
''. The ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
's'' Edward Guthmann, however, found the comparison to Zhang's earlier films as diminishing ''The Wooden Man's Bride''. While he found the film to be an "entertaining melodrama", it nevertheless lacked the "technical mastery or historical reverberations" of those other auteurs. Other critics felt that Huang had more than matched his contemporaries, in the process creating the "most visually stunning, emotionally powerful western since Clint Eastwood's ''Unforgiven''". At least one critic praised not only the film's sense of spectacle, but also what he saw as the film's underlying cultural criticism.
Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
of ''The New York Times'' noted that the film was a "methodical, cool-headed expose of an oppressive sexual code that treats women as chattel and metes out brutal punishment to violators".


See also

* ''
Ju Dou ''Ju Dou'' () is a 1990 film directed by Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang, starring Gong Li as the title character. The film, based on the novel ''Fuxi, Fuxi'' (伏羲伏羲) by Liu Heng, is a tragedy that revolves around Ju Dou, a beautiful you ...
'', Zhang Yimou's 1990 film also about a young woman forced into a loveless marriage, though with a living human being.


References


External links

* *
''The Wooden Man's Bride''
at the Chinese Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Wooden Man's Bride, The Taiwanese romantic drama films 1994 films 1990s Mandarin-language films Films set in the 1920s Films based on Chinese novels Films directed by Huang Jianxin Chinese romantic drama films