This was a groundbreaking movie of Zhang Yimou, with a formidable Gong Li starring as the peasant heroine of the late 1980s. It was spot on. So many things I could compare to real life back then, and yet a good story.
Qiu Ju goes to court had both comedy and tragedy, together with being a mirror to the bygone era of teeming masses.
The music is almost exclusively folk tunes and Chinese opera excerpt, and the sounds are real life, so it is very realistic.

With the new drama "The Story of Xing Fu" translating the story into the 21st century, this movie is worth rewatching again for comparison. In the new story, the countryside is more tame, despite the lingering rural-urban divide, which was poignant in the movie.