Jasmine Women

Jasmine Women is a film adaptation of a novel by Su Tong called Women's Life. The story is split among three generations of women who live in Shanghai, from the 30's to the 80's. Zhang Ziyi and Joan Chen play daughter and mother (later grandmother) to the same family in all three generations, and the movie is really an acting showcase for both women. In the 30's, Zhang plays Mo, a silly young women who loves movies. She works for her mom (Joan Chen) who runs a photo shop, and one day a man comes in and introduces himself as a film director, and wants to do a screen test. She willingly does so, against her mother's wishes. She does a screen test and is horrible, but gets a role in a b-movie detective film. The director sets her up in a hotel, where he later seduces her. Mo later finds out she is pregnant, and the director, finding out, wants her to have an abortion, under the lie that she can only continue to have a film career if her aborts the fetus. She does not, terrified by the screams from inside the operaing room. Later, the Japanese invade Shanghai, and the director takes all his money and moves to Hong Kong at a moment's notice, shutting down the film production company and abandoning Mo. She returns home to her mother, and is heaped abuse for making a bad life decision. She has the baby, a daughter, and raises her in her mom's house. Her mom is having a relationship with a hair stylist, who is entralled by Mo, and attempts to seduce her, but they are caught. The mother, grief stricken, commits suicide, Mo alone to raise the baby.

The second part deals with Li (played by Zhang Ziyi), the daughter, eighteen years later. It is now Communist China, and we see Li falling for and later marrying a handsome young man who is a member of the Party. Mo (now played by Joan Chen) is resentful towards her daughter because she symbolizes her ruined life, but tries to keep her from making the wrong choices in life. Li's husband is a good man who is from a poor family, and when Li moves in with them, finds that their way of life is not acceptable to her. She moves back to her mom's and a few days later, her husband follows, willing to move out to be with her. All is well except she finds out that she cannot have a child. This makes her become mentally ill, though it is a gradual decline, and becomes worse only after they adopt a child and raise her for a couple of years. One night Li imagines that her husband is attempting to rape their daughter, and accuses him in front of the entire family. She drives him to suicide, and ridden with guilt, follows him. Mo is left to raise the grandchild, Hua.

Hua's (Zhang Ziyi) story takes place in the 80's, and she too marries a young man who is off to college, and hides this from Mo, who knows that the long distance relationship will fail. Sure enough, he makes excuses not to come home, but one day he does, and they sleep together. Hua is pregnant. Mo tries to set her up with a nice man from America, forcing Hua to tell her what she did. Mo is stunned, and sees her family as cursed because of her initial foolish decision to have a child. Hua agrees to get an abortion, but is also afraid, seeing the results of the operation. One day her husband shows up, and wants a divorce. Hua uses her pregnancy as leverage to keep him over for the night, to act as man and wife one last time. She tries to gas him in his sleep, but fails because she suddenly bleeding from the womb. They separate without divorcing. Mo dies, and Hua is disconsolate, not being able to tell her of the decision she made for herself. Hua gives birth to her daughter in the pouring rain in the street. It is a harrowing scene, and Zhang does a great job showing stress, fear, and determination to deal with the sitation all by herself. It is a scene of birth and rebirth. The movie ends with the two moving to a newly built housing complex, as she starts her new life on a clean slate.

Young Hou, the director, should be credited for a fine effort. He tells each story slightly different from the others, using different tones and moods to reflect the times. There are no wasted scenes in this movie. Zhang Ziyi proves that she is not just a pretty face; she gives a great performance in three roles where she does appear as a different woman, in looks and in demeanor. The only conceit is that she plays the granddaughter, who is adopted -- and therefore should bear no resemblance to the mother! Ah well. Joan Chen is terrific as well, deserving of more roles than she seems to be getting. This is not the only time she plays a mom -- remember Saving Face? Recommended!