Golden Lotus, The Legacy of Bound Feet’ attempts to grasp the reasons behind an old feudal practice of breaking and binding a woman’s feet at a young age.The film crosses the vast countryside of China to find a dozen women in their 90s and older, whose feet were bound when they were young girls. The film succeeds in capturing rural China and allowing the women to discuss their lives and views on the practice, it fails to answer any of the questions it raises.

Chinese director Joanne Cheng raises baffling questions as she explores the relationship between femininity and patriarchy.

It is the bound foot grannies themselves that make the film a worthy watch. By recounting awful husbands, painful lives and defiant attitudes they illustrate that while having their feet bound may have been awful, it was what was done at the time.

The very point that it was fashionable is what emerged most throughout the film. All the women said they did enjoying having the feet bound by their parents and said it was done because men found it pleasing and beautiful.

People would have laughed at them if they didn’t have bound feet at the time, the women said.

The most surprising aspect of the film, I found, was how the bound feet actually looked. Having read literature from the region that depicts the practice, I understood it was a barbaric but presumed that it resulted in something appealing, namely small feet. However, the women’s feet are far from being small — they resembled elephant hoofs. While the part the women walk on is much smaller than regular women’s feet the rest of the foot is swollen and large.

But then fashion changes. After all wasn’t it fashionable for women to wear shoulder pads in the 80s? And aren’t women now starving themselves for the waif look?

The only down side to the film was that the director’s relationship with her grandmother — a bound foot woman and passed away while Ms Cheng was studying in the US — tends to overshadow the issues she is attempting to explore at times.

This is her third instalment of a documentary trilogy on contemporary China. For those interested in the region, the culture or the practice, the film is an interesting watch — but can be slow at times.