"Ju Dou" was made before "Raise the red lantern" (1991), the breakthrough movie of Zhang Yimou in the Netherlands, but released in the aftermath of the success of the last mentioned movie. There are similarities between the two films, but also big differences.

The similarities are that in both films a young woman is "bought" by an old wealthy man. In both films tensions arises when a male baby does not come soon.

In "Raise the red lantern" the older and earlier women of the rich man are still there, and the emphasis is on the jealousy and sneaky bullying of the women among themselves. In "Ju Dou" the former women of the rich men are already dead. The emphasis is on the hatred of the woman against her old husband and her extramarital affair with an adopted nephew of her own age.

With respect to this extramarital affair the openness with which sexuality is portrayed is remarkable for a Chinese film. There are even glimpses of exhibitionism. First the woman discovers that the nephew is peeping on her while bathing. Shocked at first it doesn't take long before she puts up a show to get the nephew excited. Later, when the old man is paralysed and immobile, the woman and the nephew make love to each other in a way that is clearly audible (and deliberately so) for the old man.

The main difference between "Ju Dou" and "Raise the red lantern" is however the use of color. Mostly grey in "Raise the red lantern", because the emotions (jealousy and sneaky bullying) are mostly subcutaneous. A feast of bright colors (the film is situated in a wool dyeing factory) in "Ju Dou" because the emotions (both the hatred for the old man as the passion for the nephew) are all consuming.

This allegorical melodrama is most notable for its use of color: the film is mostly set in a small dye factory/household and the beautiful, brilliant colors of the dye are in stark contrast to the drabness of the building itself and the ugly lives that are lived there. Life is so ugly because household head Jin-shan is an impotent old man who has recently purchased an expensive young wife. Since he did purchase her, he feels it is his right to beat her every time he fails to perform sexually. Soon, his adopted son Tian-qing gets wind of his step-moms' nightly beatings and he begins to comfort her. It doesn't take much of this comforting to get her pregnant with a son that ends up being even more evil than Jin-shan himself, especially since young Tian-bai refuses to acknowledge Tian-qing in any way.

Characterizations are very slim here, most likely to ensure that the viewer doesn't try to look at the characters as anything more than allegorical stand-ins for a government so repressive that they banned the film for portraying an extramarital affair and so stupid that they didn't realize that the film is highly critical of their regime. Jin-shen is the stand-in for the government that treats its people as slaves and he's ironically aided by the ignorant Tian-bai who completely fails to understand the situation and is guided by a misplaced loyalty. Of course the ill-fated central couple is representative of the middle class people who understand the situation they are in but lack the power to change it.

The film works as an allegory but comes off as rather unengaging if taken literally since the characters aren't fleshed out. This is a particular problem with Tian-qing as he has numerous chances to better his situation but never acts rationally and Tian-bai who acts completely inhuman. Still, the direction and visuals are handled well enough to keep the film from being a mere exercise in didacticism.