This week’s movie up for review is I Am Not Madam Bovary. I went in blind with this one. I didn’t read the reviews and didn’t consider any ratings. I didn’t know what to expect, so I held all judgment for the end. Now let’s get it!

The story takes place in modern-day China, where women aren’t necessarily stoned for premarital or extramarital sex. Still, they are looked down upon and labeled indecent or in this case: Pan Jinlian. It follows a ten-year period in Li Xuelian’s life as she attempts to make those who she feels wronged her pay.

No Honor Among Thieves
She and her husband, Qin Yuhe, tried to scam the system, but it backfired tremendously. She thought they wanted a larger family, but he wanted a divorce. People get married and get divorced, like take out. Gone are the days where you’re stigmatized- unless of course, you’re in the church, those people will crucify you. I ask why he didn’t just ask her for the divorce he obviously wanted. Of course, she would have fought him, but at least he and his current wife wouldn’t have suffered as much as they did. Or maybe he would have. I didn’t get the sense that she had an identity of her own or it didn’t seem she saw herself as anything other than a wife. I mean the woman owned a whole restaurant, and she had men falling over themselves to be with her. But she was still hanging onto a man who had no qualms about tarnishing her reputation. That was until she dropped the tidbit about the miscarriage, and then it was just pure revenge for her. Qin Yuhe probably knowing how tenacious his wife could be would have happily stayed in their loveless marriage, but he saw an opportunity and took it.

The unsaved me would have given him more hell than Li Xuelian did, but the healed and whole me now sees the miscarriage as a blessing and chooses to move forward. It sounds terrible, but losing one’s peace is not an option. Besides if he was willing to stoop that low to get rid of her, who knows what else he’s capable of. A man like that isn’t worth hanging onto is he?
But my thought now is what happened to their first child? This whole business began because of the one-child restriction, but we never hear of them past the explanation behind the divorce.

This movie puts me in mind of Tyler Perry’s Acrimony. Melinda Moore, played by Taraji P. Henson, married her college sweetheart Robert Gayle, who promised her the world. Long story short she fully invested in him, but his promises kept coming up short. However, one day his invention takes off, but they’d already divorced. And to get back at her for quitting on him, he torments her by giving the new woman everything he promised her. Instead of moving forward, she meditates on his past grievances. Eventually, her rage boils over, and spoiler alert: she kills them both. Absolutely recommend the movie if only for the lesson it taught me: learn to forgive and keep moving forward.

Li Xuelian doesn’t seem all that educated. In my mind, I asked where was Li Xuelian’s mother, sisters, or community in this ten-year struggle? Why didn’t anyone take her by the hand and explain to her in simple words why she would never marry Qin Yuhe again? But knowing the way people like to gossip, I realized they were probably the ones perpetuating the gossip. After all her only companion was a talking cow. Somewhere along the line Li Xuelian got lost.

That rat bastard, Zhou Datou raped her, but she enjoyed it. I don’t care what argument anyone tries to put forth, that bitch raped her. This is the type of case that had she tried to report him the police probably wouldn’t take her side because A) he’s her lover and B) she enjoyed it. The worse part is that she’d been so traumatized in her marriage to Qin Yuhe that she sadly never enjoyed sex, so the only time she actually felt pleasure is at the hands of this cretin. I wanted her to be more outraged, but she enjoyed it. What can you do?

Shockingly, the government officials tried to help her, but they only really cared about their jobs in the end.
Honestly, I didn’t know how to feel about this movie. There are no innocent parties. Their divorce merely revealed corruption at all levels. This movie resides in the grey for me, it’s not good or bad. It’s just really depressing.
Anypoops I give it 3 rose petals.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been scrambling for movies and tv shows to review. I know that sounds crazy with the abundance today, but I’m going for international films. I want to branch out from the American stage, but I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into just K-dramas. I want to be exposed to different cultures through media. If you have suggestions please don’t hesitate to recommend something, but I must say if you recommend a tv show it will be a good minute before I post a review. It takes time for me to digest tv shows (between work and school). Leave your suggestion in the comment section, please.

P.S.
Blood & Gore will not be considered.