Review by Diana Gentile, Valley Middle School

The Story of Qiu Ju follows a young Chinese woman on her journey to obtain justice for her husband who was beaten by their village chief. Qiu Ju repeatedly states that the chief kicked her husband in ‘the private parts’ (it is later discovered that one of his ribs was broken), however, her main concern was the humiliation suffered because he was kicked in his ‘private parts’. This statement is repeated frequently enough that I feel my 7th grade students would be distracted and lose sight of the larger picture. The story follows her as she moves through the court system in an attempt to get the village chief to actually apologize even though he offered to pay money in lost wages. The movie does show the levels to the legal system, but it was extremely slow moving. Even though it was easy to follow, I feel that it would be very difficult for my students to stay focused and pay attention. It may better serve a lesson if used to show short clips of village life, but I feel that there are many other clips available elsewhere that could be used to serve this purpose. All in all, I would not recommend this particular film.