Another fine performance by Gong Li in a story that takes too long to reach its disconcerting conclusion. (SPOILER) Her character's determined struggle to seek a just settlement for the local Communist party official's assault on her husband is impressive. She is not deterred by physical hardship, swindlers, party bureaucrats, or the arrogance of the party official himself.(SPOILER) The plot twist that occurs at the birth of her baby almost redeems the slow pace of the film up to that point of the story, but not quite.The location shots (in the cities and rural areas) enhance the story but not quite enough for this reviewer. Not a waste of time for those with enough patience to wait for the story to reach its conclusion, but not as good as many other of Gong Li's & Yimou Zhang's work.

Probably my least favorite Zhang Yimou film. Oh, it's not bad. It's pretty good, to tell the truth. But it's the kind of film where you get the point right away and you have to spend 100 minutes watching the filmmaker stumble toward the foregone conclusion. Gong Li plays the title character, a hugely pregnant woman. Her husband just got kicked in the nuts by their farming community's chief, and Qiu Ju wants an apology. Unfortunately, none of the officials she takes the case to can actually force the guy to apologize. They can make him dole out monetary compensation, but that's not good enough for Qiu Ju. Every time she doesn't get the results she wants, she attempts to go to a higher level of authority. It's an amusing situation, but the film kind of plods along slowly. I won't demand Zhang Yimou stick to his wonderful visual talents, but it is disappointing how mundane this film looks and feels. The worst crime perhaps is that Gong Li isn't given much acting to do. I love the final look on her face when the film ends, but I think pretty much anyone could have played Qiu Ju. I know, it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. I just wasn't overly impressed with it, despite its obvious qualities.

The movie is a comedy, and a comedy only. Should the content go a bit deeper, it will surely be banned. In the communist system (under which I was raised), the "face" (reputation), not the truth, is supremely important. If the ruling government (or person) is portrayed by a story in any unfavorable light, the movie will simply not meet any audience except the censor review board.In this movie, only a village cadre is selected as the bad guy, who kicked someone's private part. Then Qiu Ju, the victim's wife, went on a pilgrimage to seek justice for her husband. What if this bad guy is the mayor of a major City or higher? In that case, Qiu Ju may very likely get murdered and disappear into thin air. One person's life in China is not viewed precious like in the West. Power-play removes anyone in the way: even LIU Shao-qi, the 2nd-man in power before the Cultural Revolution of 1966, was gotten rid of because he endangered Mao's position (like to see a movie on that story, but it's guaranteed banned material in China).Qiu Ju is admirable because she is earnest and persistent. Getting to one level without seeing justice done, she moves on. For the majority of the people in China, they would have given up. If this spirit gets into everybody in China, we will see a revolution. The student's movement in Beijing (1989) was one of such, and the result: blood shedding. Whole country learned from the incident to shut up. Where is Qiu Ju's persistence then? When will the freedom of speech (like what we enjoy at this forum) be granted in China? When will the Internet be truly open to the average Qiu Ju in China?So to get this movie approved and circulated, the bad guy in this movie got what he deserved: put in prison, though Qiu Ju only demanded an apology from the Village-head. She would hate to find the village-head tortured in prison (Qiu Ju may not know it, but oh yes, there is severe torture in China's prisons all over the country) or even sent to labor camp where one would wither away. The truth behind this movie is: China's bureaucrats never listen to people's voice. And why would they? They are appointed at high levels, not elected. If you cannot have free speech publicly, how can you do anything according to conscience publicly?Enjoy Qiu Ju's story and its colorful and rich portrayal of life in China, but don't follow her spirit if you are in China: you could get... (oh… help... help me... someone is pulling my plug... !!!)

Really enjoyed this one. Qiu Ju is the wife of a man who has been kicked by a neighbor, his village chief. She presses for an apology, largely (if subtitles do it justice) because, even though his chest is what hurts longer, he's been kicked in the "privates" and she wants more than one child. She takes her quest for the apology up the chain of officialdom.I couldn't get enough of the scenery - houses, city, carts, clothes, painted paper banners, dried peppers and corn - and the faces of people. As other viewers noted positively, the people in it didn't seem to be actors but real people, caught up in daily affairs and catching us up, too. The nearby village is somewhat familiar to her, but her trip to the city may have been her first. Watching her trying to find her way around, haggling for fair rates and help from a produce buyer, a bike-cart driver, a letter writer, a hotelier, and a lawyer was a lot of fun. Her trips seemed like a great introduction to the culture.One of the things I loved was how the families and neighbors kept having complex interactions with each other throughout the ordeal. And the social roles in this were interesting: Farm/village chief to farmer, sister to sister, daughter-in-law to her in-laws, Party officials to their hierarchy and to citizens, country to city, women's role in general (as in what sex babies are preferred) and the strong stance of a specific woman like Qiu Ju, who seemed to be empowered as much as frustrated by the system and by her family and neighbors.I read reviews of this as a negative comment on bureaucracy. If so, it showed a remarkably humane one. Flaws were on display but the overall tone was of acceptance.The sudden ending left me feeling for the main characters. I seemed to see a judgment in it, but wasn't sure what that judgment was. I wanted to know how the story was interpreted in China, so I came to IMDB to at least see how others took it.