Pavilion of Women (2001)

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a film which will appeal to a very large group of people because of old customs of a man in China being able to choose a second wife after years of marriage.The local Missionery has his hands full trying to find ways in order to keep the families from breaking up and at the same time keep himself from being tempted into a sexual relation which is very powerful.There is plenty of romance and lots of explosions and you name it, this film will keep you interested right to the very end of the film.Found the film rather long and not produced as well as I expected for a 2001 film. Give it a try.

OK, I see that someone filmed _Pavilion of Women_. Interesting choice. Then I look at the credits: No Tsemo, no Rulan, and... what in the name of Hong Xiuquan is a Japanese general doing in _Pavilion of Women_!? They seem to have this confused with _Dragon Seed_ or something...And I was really looking forward to seeing who they cast as those two. The Tsemo-Rulan story arc was easily my favorite part of the book, and with their very good Fengmo, I had high hopes...In short: this sounds like it's *nothing* like the book. Perhaps I'll get this comment deleted for having been posted without seeing the film, but frankly, with a departure like *this* (not to mention Brother Andre utterly abandoning his original character -- ugh, the fact that the fellow doesn't actually exist doesn't mean that he shouldn't sue), I'd say that seeing the film is probably far too steep a price to pay. Let's hope for a *real* adaptation of _Pavilion_ someday -- or, to be more practical, something like _Kinfolk_, or ideally _Sons_.(Yes, on that subject, well, a _Sons_ movie would be nothing to stab one's treacherous but extremely beautiful kitsune concubine over, but it would be about as close to that as a film would be likely to get...)

(spoilers???) Think we all new he was gonna die. But I didn't entirely care. It was the female Wu, I cared about her and the second sister who fell in love with female wu's son. It certainly is a drama. But parts of the movie and especially the end made no sense whatsoever. Has Dafoe come back as a ghost or what? I also got confused as to where in the heck the movie was based (I learned later China) They got Japan attacks close enough. Though the special effects were cheap.The english language was very annoying. Mr. Wu talked like an idiot. We laughed when we shouldn't have. His acting was the weak section of the movieIt was okay as a rental, but I'm not sure I'd buy it.6/10Quality: 6/10 Entertainment: 7/10 Replayable: 3/10

Am I the only one out here who read 'Pavilion of Women'? This film took a great book and what would have been a fantastic female role and turned them both into porridge. In the book, the relationship between Brother Andre and Madame Wu was that of a wise teacher and a brilliant pupil until, literally, the day he died: it wasn't until that day that she realized that she loved him. Pavilion of Women is not a 'romance': it is the awakening of a woman to her own humanity, and, through the transforming power of love, to the humanity of others, whom she has previously regarded only as problems to be solved or duties to be performed. To turn it into a 'romance' is an insult to the author, Pearl Buck, who, for the record, did not write Harlequin-level trash, and the audience, who would have been quite capable of understanding the story as it was originally written. Whoever's responsible for foisting this 'dumbed-down' mess on the universe should be ashamed of themselves.