It is perhaps Yimou's most lavish and stately film, quite unlike his others in style. It is also his most resonant.

The atypical symmetry and stillness of the compositions stress the strait-jacket mores of a stagnant feudal culture. The acting is excellent, too, but one can't help but feel that Zhang has said it all before and more imaginatively.

Zhang seems to suggest, the price for rebellion and transgression is still death or madness.

Once again making exceptional use of bright colour, symbolic compositions, stylised sets and the breathtaking rural landscape, director Zhang Yimou has fashioned a compelling and at times erotic story about the repression of women in 1920s China.