DVD Review: Raise the Red Lantern
Zhang Yimou and Gong Li's Finest Hour
In 1920s China, nineteen-year old Songlian (Gong Li) has to quit university when her father dies. With no option but to marry, she finds herself the fourth wife – the Fourth Mistress – of the wealthy Mr Chen. As a newcomer to the household she is at first treated royally, but soon comes to realize that life in the luxurious compound is all about ruthless competition between the wives.
Raising the Red Lantern
Mr Chen (Ma Jingwu), who remains a shadowy figure in the film, orders the raising of red lanterns outside the house of the favoured wife on a given night. The chosen wife gets a massage, her choice of food at dinner and the master in her bed. Songlian must deal with the openly jealous third wife Meishan (He Caifei) and the duplicitous second wife Zhuoyun (Cao Cuifen) to secure her position within the family. Yuru, the first wife (Jin Shuyuan), has already produced a son, now grown up, and is content to remain in the background.
Director Zhang Yimou depicts a self-contained world, full of sumptuous color yet oddly isolated from the chaos of China during the warlord period. This reflects the reality for Songlian, whose world has narrowed to the confines of the Chen estate, with its sweeping roofs and opulent interiors. The estate is as much the setting for struggles for prestige and power as the outside world.
Performances in Raise the Red Lantern
Performances throughout are subtle and restrained, with Gong Li standing out as Songlian. She draws the viewer in to this world of ritual and back-stabbing, and the viewer feels her increasing frustration and helplessness. He Caifei’s Meishan is refreshingly straightforward, while Cao Cuifen’s Zhuoyun is a convincing manipulator, a character “with the face of a Buddha, and the heart of a scorpion,” according to Meishan.
Cinematography in Raise the Red Lantern
The cinematography in Raise the Red Lantern is particularly striking, saturating the screen in deep red lanterns, warm ochre roofs and sumptuous silks. The bold use of color is a trademark of director Zhang Yimou, who used it to even greater effect in the film Hero, the most expensive and highest-grossing Chinese made film at the time of its release in 2002.
A Breakthrough in Chinese Cinema
The partnership between director Zhang Yimou and actress Gong Li played a pivotal role in bringing Chinese film to the attention of worldwide audiences. Aside from Raise the Red Lantern, their films include Red Sorghum, Ju Dou and Curse of the Golden Flower.
Raise the Red Lantern is available from MGM World Films.
Title: Raise the Red Lantern
Starring: Gong Li
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Written by: Ni Zhen, from the novel Wives and Concubines, by Su Tong
Language: Mandarin, with English subtitles
Running Time: 125 minutes
Raise the Red Lantern
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