The Wooden Man's Bride

The Wooden Man's Bride is a surprisingly good film about the tyrrany of family honor and traditional values, and one man's adventure to save and win the woman he loves. It takes place in a cold, desert land (Northern China?), and a group of travellers are bringing a bride to a village for marriage. A group of bandits surprise them and capture the bride. She offers herself to the gang leader to spare the life of a man who had tried to hide her, a fellow villager who makes tofu. The travellers go to the village, to tell the family of the incident. The husband-to-be goes to get his gun, and is killed when the gunpowder is set off as he stumbles from a stool, holding a lantern. The tofu man, still out in the desert, resolves to find the bride and bring her to the town. He comes across the bandits' hideout, and asks for them to return her. While the others scoff at him, the leader notes this man's courage, and puts him to a test - if he drinks a bowl of poisoned water (causing deafness but not death), he will let her go. He does, and the bride is set free. Apparently the bandit leader had recently lost his wife, and so the tofu man's actions made him realize his own folly. The others admire his guts, and invite him to be one of the gang. He refuses, and brings the bride to the village. Even though the future husband is dead, his mother insists on the marriage, to keep order and to save family honor. The bride is wedded to a wooden effigy. She has to sleep with it, carry it around, etc. She becomes trapped by it and the family. The tofu man beomes part of the household for his good deeds. The bride tries to escape several times, but is prevented by other family members, and eventually is forced to stay, otherwise other people will be put to death for not watching over her. The bride and the tofu man become close, and eventually make love. This is eventually discovered, and the man is cast out of the village, and the bride's ankles are broken as punishment. The tofu man goes back to the bandits' hideout, where a fight had recently taken place, and many of the bandits were killed. He returns with the surviving members to rescue the bride from the family. The matriarch is forced to hang herself, and the movie ends the way it began: with the tofu man carrying the bride dressed in red on his back, this time escorted by the bandits.

This is a simple yet powerful story, low key yet had a lot of intrigue. No music, adding to the minimal feel. The characters are well realized, and you get the feel for a world where people live to survive; every day is composed of activities that they must to do keep on working and living. The lack of the bride's rights in the family is ironic when the one who is maintaining a stranglehold over her is the matriarch, who also has lost her husband. It is a jab at family honor and the lengths that the community will go to enforce it. Highly recommended!