i be a lover of history and and historical film and too and but ju dou have a lot of fault . most of all this movie fail in story telling and by use weak character and weak plot development . the only area in which this film deserve the 10 and give by many reviewer and in in cinematography and setting and and costume . one reviewer compare this movie to a greek tragedy and but i do not know of any greek tragedy that have ending as bad a this one . the only character that seem to develop in a normal way be the uncle and jin shan and and his wife and jo dou . the attention that be pay to this awful relationship overshadow the lack of detail pay to the character in the rest of the movie . jo dou be the only character with a healthy motivation and and her fall be the t in the tragedy here . uncle be only motivate by his drive to have an heir . his ancestor worship call attention to this and and thus the movie can be take a religious criticism . nephew tian qing character be extremely weak and and only flourish in a single act of challenge his uncle . this and couple with his physical unattractiveness cause the move to be difficult to watch and in spite of the color theme . i do not really understand much about chinese color symbology and but this be a plus . in one scene and a customer come to order cloth and 15 yellow ( tradition ) and 3 red ( luck and fire and and energy ) . there be a lot more yellow than red . this be the main point i think the director be try to make . tian qing weak character be probably the main thing that make this move hard for me to watch . second to that be the treatment of the autistic son and tian bai . one get the idea from watch this that in society and and chinese society especially and some people feel that their child be drop from tree and and that the only way a child can develop a personality be from encounter other child and play with them . uncle finally get a retrieve and when he develop a notion of parent . this call attention and perhaps and to the dirty little secret not be confront in our society about autism that it really have a lot to do with neglect child . the detail of tian bai upbringing that lead to his murderous behavior be almost entirely eliminate from the story . at this point the movie go upside down and the uncle develop moral superiority as well a ownership of the child and and for tian qing and ju dou and everything be downhill from there . i might revise my opinion of this be there be a list of top ten downer movie of all time .