Yang Xu

Yang Xu

27 Feb. 2023

Judou, The Oedipus complex, Postponed death, Psychoanalysis, Multiple interpretations, Zhang Yimou.

The Oedipus complex, vital to Western tradition, seems to be negligible in Chinese literary and film works. However, the truth is that it still finds presentations in different forms in many works. The Chinese film Judou directed by Zhang Yimou focuses on the incest taboo in human society as its theme, provoking profound literary, psychological and anthropological reflections. The incest between Wang Judou the aunt and Yang Tianqing the nephew endows the characters in the story with multiple identities, hence complicated conflicts in the film and more interpretation possibilities. This article adopts psychoanalysis to revisit the contradictions and conflicts between Tianqing and Jinshan, Tianqing and Tianbai, Tianbai and Jinshan, as well as Tianbai and the villager. It finds that the Oedipus complex lies deep behind the tragedy. Tianqing’s desire to murder his adoptive father Jinshan, and Tianbai’s killing of his titular father, natural father and the imagined possessor of his mother, whether it be successful or failed, are all specific manifestations of the Oedipus complex. In addition, the Oedipus complex also offers a new perspective to analyze Tianqing’s ambivalent attitude toward his adoptive father Jinshan. Despite strong desires to replace Jinshan as the possessor of Judou, Tianqing exhibits much hesitance and has always been postponing murdering the latter, for this, as psychoanalysis sees it, implies the denying of himself. In short, the Oedipus complex provides new angles and possibilities for the interpretation of this film.

© 2023, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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