The Human Condition
lots of people on here has mentioned the restrictiveness of the system and so forth, but i think the more important aspect of the film is the human condition which Zhang explores.
like it or not, the way the 4 women interact is exactly like the way people treat each other in the reality. deceite, manipulation, social climbing, jealousy, instant gratification, pettiness, revenge etc, these acts happen under every social systme in every era regardless of how restrictive or free you are. i think it was the 3rd wife that said something along the lines of that its all just a big play, if ur acting is good, you can decieve others, if not, you deceive yourself, and the 4th wife says to the son about how everyone schemes against everyone else and it was all pointless
every character can easily be identified with real world counter part, infact, its not too hard to see some of urselves in them too (i dont cos im cool :P). whether its the jaded 1st wife whos seen it all and basically cant be tossed about it anymore, the manipulative two-faced 2nd wife, the petty and scheming but ultimately naive 3rd or the 4th wife whos just overwhelmed by it all, they are all in the end, human. and that is why this film is so brilliant, its not afraid to go for a sad ending. there is no triumph of the 4th wife over the 2nd (and i bet more than a few of you was wishing for such an ending) and happily ever after here, because realistically thats how it is - the treachureous and fakes tend to get ahead.
of course, the film is critical of an old and outdated system and one can easily say that they are the product of that system, but i think feudalistic China provides a readily avaliable microcosm to explore these facades of human character. they are not so much as a product of the system, rather such a system apmlifies many of these qualities that we tend to overlook in freeier societies
in any case, thats the kinda thing i got from it when i saw it recently. im sure others would have other perspective...so discuss...lol