‘The Story of Qiu Ju’

Eyes opaque, mouth sullen, notably pregnant for most of the movie, Gong Li’s Qiu Ju (pictured) is wrapped in dowdy farm clothes, playing a stubborn peasant woman who carries her case against an equally stubborn village chief. Qiu Ju goes all the way from local police to the highest courts. Moviegoers ready to sympathize with any individual bucking the system will have a harder time with Qiu Ju, whose quest is comic, and whose motives seem increasingly confused or petulant. Upset because her husband was kicked in the crotch by the chief, who contemptuously refuses to explain his actions, Qiu Ju carries her vendetta past self-interest and reason, bullying her way toward a scathingly ironic climax. In the process director Zhang Yimou subtly reveals the silliness, incompetence and artificiality of vast bureaucracies. (Cinemax Wednesday at 8 p.m.)