菊豆 (JU DOU) (1990)

菊豆 (JU DOU) starts off with a man peeping through a hole while a woman bathes. When she discovers it, she feels violated, but she eventually falls in love with him. At first I thought "This doesn't make sense... unless she'll manipulate him to kill her abusive husband. That would be a clever twist, because it would show her taking advantage of the person who was trying to take advantage of her (albeit not physically)." Nope, she really loves him. This would've worked in a dark character study, showing how a victim of abuse would fall for someone who's less bad in comparison but, in every moment where they're together, the dialogue is very romantic. This is so messed up (and not in the way writer Liu Heng intended) that it ruins a movie that succeeds in many other areas.

6/10
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