The Wooden Man's Bride

B

Directed by Jianxin Huang

A largely forgotten remnant of the heyday of Chinese historical epics, Jianxin Huang's "The Wooden Man's Bride" is an effective if not totally groundbreaking adaptation of a popular Chinese folk tale which benefits from some outstanding acting by its young leads which, unfortunately for the viewer, are not sufficiently capitalized on by its director.

After being kidnapped on the way to her wedding, a young bride from a peasant family (Lang Wang) is rescued by local boy Kui (Shih Chang) from the bandits who absconded with her. Tragically, the groom to be is killed in an explosion while trying to save his bride and his grieving mother, the bourgeois Madame Liu, forces the young mistress to marry a crude wooden representation of her deceased son. Trapped in a marriage to a lifeless piece of wood, the young mistress sombers into depression, her only solace found in the company of Kui who, following his bravery in retrieving the young bride, was rewarded with full time employment in Madame Liu's household. The young mistress's desperation turns into attraction for Kui who, despite his duties to his employer, feels unable to resists advances of the young widow. Caution is thrown to the wind and consequences ensue.

"The Wooden Man's Bride" was part of the wave of Chinese epics that were released in the early and mid-90's, often to glowing reviews from awe struck Western audiences. Huang's film contains many of the elements that made similar pictures such as "Raise the Red Lantern" or "Farewell My Concubine," mega hits, namely sweeping, epic scope matched with lurid melodrama and narrative tension built around the personal ambitions of characters caught in rigid social hierarchies. Although "The Wooden Man's Bride" doesn't succeed on the level of the previously mentioned films, there is still much to enjoy in this picture. For starters, Shih Chang and Lan Wang are both great as Kui and the Young Mistress respectively, which makes me wonder why both of them had such pedestrian careers after the release of "The Wooden Man's Bride." The success of a film such as "The Wooden Man's Bride," where the suspense revolves around the tensions between personal hopes and ambition being stifled by unbending social systems, lies primarily in the ability of its actors to successfully sell the emotional anguish and frustration of their characters, something both Wang and Chang do marvelously well. Also noteworthy is the film's wonderful cinematography, capturing the barren steps of northern China in lush detail and giving Huang's film the epic, sweeping proportions it was obviously aiming for.
The film does warrant some criticisms, of course, starting with Huang's failure to focus on the relationship between Kui and the young mistress. Indeed, far too much time was spent on the young bride's kidnapping, her subsequent marriage to the "wooden man," as well as her growing alienation from her mother in law, all of which robbed valuable screen time from the relationship between the young mistress and Kui which was, as already mentioned, easily the most engrossing and enjoyable part of the film and should have been the focal point of Huang's picture. Nevertheless, "The Wooden Man's Bride" is an enjoyable film that unfortunately slipped through the cracks after its release and is now rather difficult to get a hold of. I'm not going to suggest that anyone download it illegally. That would, of course, be wrong and rob the hardworking people of Long Shong pictures from some much needed dough. Yeah...