Brad have you seen this? You may know a R1 has been put out by Sony.
The film sounds good from that review, though I havent seen any Yimou dramas (I did try taping Raise the Red Lantern [1991] back in the day but it didnt work).
a low budget film sans much of the visual splendor and reading that review, the anamorphic mei ah doesn't seem like a bad choice right now. Subtitles were also decent from what I remember. Dvdbeaver surely will put up a comparison soon-ish also.