she knew nothing. The best thing that could have happened to her is what wound up happening at the end with her losing her mind.

I really disagree. The film shows the gender, class inequalities of the time and the abuses that followed. It's not like she could have done anything much to change her outcome, except being born to a noble family, being born a boy or being born centuries later.

But great film, amazing must see for everyone. Beautiful ;)

You're right, it did show all those things. However, in the very first scene, though her choices were limited, she still had a choice. She didn't have to choose to become a fourth wife, essentially a nobody with absolutely no power. She could have chosen to become a first wife, perhaps an only wife. Someone of value with at least some power in her home. But she gave up from the very beginning.

I'm familiar with Chinese culture. I'm well aware of a woman's lack of value in that culture, and that's still true today. Oh yes, they can work now, but many still (especially in rural communities) don't have value and still have to become wives and mothers and have no education. But that doesn't mean a woman can't have power. She can make choices within her home if she's wise enough and influence her husband in HIS choices. This woman was not wise. Educated? Yes, but wise? No. And part of that was due to her youth, but a lot of it was because she was very bitter about her life and the main point is that she made the choice to give up and not try and salvage the situation. Her mother (or was the woman her stepmother? I honestly can't remember) tried to dissuade her from her choice. But she refused to listen. Her very words amplified her attitude toward her situation. She made the choice not to make something positive out of things so that she could still down the road have a happy and fulfilling life.

I'm not trying to sway you in any way, I'm just expressing my views on her situation and what she chose to make of it.

To be fair, I also saw this a while ago so can’t recall all the details (and rewatched many times after that).

I mean of course you’re right that she could have made better decisions but I bet that could be attributed to a couple of things. Like you said, her age. I forget the flute, was it her brother’s, lover’s, etc.? I imagine she missed someone in her life, was sad and felt sorry for herself, all the foibles of youth.

IMHO the bottom line was that it’s a drama and needed characters, strong characters and flawed characters…. If she had been as smart as you say, yep she would have had a different, better life, and we wouldn’t have had the film at all.

Again one of my all time Chinese favorites - breathtaking cinematography (I remember seeing this in theaters back in the day).

That's one of the things I eventually wanted to ask Travis about - theme related boards, or based on lists. I made a Korean list but there are a bunch of Asian film lists that would be great fun to talk about....