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This review may contain spoilers
"People are ghosts, and ghosts are people."
The cold stone complex with glowing red eyes in Zhang Yi Mou’s Raise the Red Lantern bids young women into its luxurious lifestyle. Afterall, it’s just as easy to marry a rich man as it is a poor man. Or is it?Gong Li stars as Songlian the newest concubine of a rich man in this gilded cage of competitive horrors. Educated but with few options after her father dies she marries an older man. She quickly learns that the women and servants are pitted against one another in a popularity game to garner the master’s favor. Red lanterns are lit in the courtyard and living apartment of the woman he chooses for the night. The clickety clack of massage hammers used on the chosen one’s feet turns into a Pavlov’s bell for the women. The master’s idea of foreplay is something akin to “brace yourself darlin’” but the women do what they must to attract his attention and keep it.
Other than the privileges the chosen one temporarily receives, the concubines hold no power. They are largely interchangeable, this is the territory of the powerful master and his game and rules. The women’s fate is tied to pleasing him and gifting him sons. In the ruthless conflict between the concubines, betrayal and tragedy are always near at hand.
Master Chen’s face is never focused on. His is the face of oppression and rigid familial customs, the ringmaster in the tragic circus.
Songlian discovers that the people in the huge complex are largely ghosts living in the house abiding by the rules of ancestors long gone. She tries to rebel, game the system, and in the end becomes ostracized and alone. When she witnesses an unspeakable act she realizes that she is trapped with only two ways out-death or madness.
Raise the Red Lantern criticizes a number of social structures as well as the plight of women during this time. Outdated cruel traditions that guide their everyday life are firmly in the director’s bullseye. It is gripping and difficult to watch at times.
Songlian is not an easy character to like as she can be very abrasive and snobbish. Her youth and independent nature cause her to chafe under the ridiculous rules and volatile hierarchy. She learns the hard way the price for disobedience. Gong Li’s expressive face helps us to understand how we should feel as well. Rebellious. Trapped. Isolated. Horrified. She gives a gloriously understated performance as a young woman caught in the chains of family customs; the players involved more like ghosts ensnaring fresh faces to drag into their macabre story.
Zhang Yi Mou saturates some scenes in a rich red light, the color of birth, life, and death. At other times an icy blue hue overtakes the scene driving home the solitariness of the one not chosen. The large complex could almost be given a credit as well the way Zhang lovingly uses the stunning architecture to showcase the concubines’ limited stone world. There was no soft place to land amongst the hard edges. The lush colors of their costumes played in stark contrast to the institutional banality. It was a remote facility both physically and emotionally.
The sets, concubines, and costumes are intoxicatingly beautiful but lying beneath them is a grotesque cruelty. Raise the Red Lantern is a treat for the eyes as most of Zhang Yi Mou’s films are. Though difficult to watch this story of the powerful’s abuse of women and tradition is one worth trying.
“What do people amount to in this house? They’re like dogs, cats, or rats, but certainly not people.”
1/12/23
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I found this movie really impressive. It really shows well the life in China at the beginning of the 20th Century I guess, and the only thing I could think about afterwards was that I was really lucky not to be there.
I think it's relly interesting to watch this movie to learn about China's history. It's good if you want to have culture. And this movie also got an award.
But if you're more interested in comedies it's not exactly a happy story. Yet the main charcacter is really appealing and I think the actress, Gong Li, is a great actress.
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Custom that kills
From the synopsis provided in the description of this movie, that’s basically this movie is all about. If you plan to watch this movie, better not to read the description and just jump straight into the movie with a clean slate. In my opinion, it’s a pretty direct storylines, there’s no really a plot twist. It’s 2 hour long only because the sound effects or visual effects idk how to explain it. Reaching almost the end of this movie makes me dozed off and once I wake up, it’s still on that scene, that’s how slow the progress is.Nevertheless, it’s an interesting movie maybe for that period of time. Right now, maybe our generation will find it hard to watch this kind of movie even more to understand it. It’s a movie that tells you about a Chinese custom, what women will experience if they married into a husband who practiced polygamy and those who practice this kind of custom where whenever a husband chose to sleep with his wife, the red lantern will be raised in front of that chosen wife’s house. So, in order to get into your husband’s arms and getting the red lantern to be light on your house area, you need to compete with another wives, the scheme, the betrayal, either will put you through or will make you fall into the madness. It’s a battle that will drenched you with loneliness and tears.
Song Lian starring Gong Li was so good for this role. This movie focusing on her role most of the time, I barely remember others roles except Meishan, the 3rd wives, and Zhouyun, the 2nd wives. This movie reminds me of Ruyi’s Royal Love in The Palace and Story of Yanxi Palace drama. Got the same vibes but Raise the Red lantern is the shorter version that made into a movie, also only differences is the status. While the two happened in the palace between the king and his concubines, the later one happened between the rich man and his four wives.
Overall, not gonna rewatch this again for sure. However, it’s a good movie that will teach you some of good lessons so please go ahead if you wanna give a try.
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Beautiful yet depressing
This is a n art film, with beautiful extremely symmetric aesthetics. Like most artistic films it has a bunch of kind of boaring moments and while there is a lot of scheeming going on it is kind of meeh, but we do get to see a young educated woman get worn down, slowly slowly she is worn down to know her place as a the fourth mistress in household where all aim to please the master as that pretty much is the only option for surviving.A movie that shows very well how little woman where worth and how expandable they are...
While I the sound of this drama is a torchere for the ear of those who do not love Chinese opera, once things the last 10 minutes of the movie made it all worth it, yes even the opera part was put in to place and it was just a perfect ending to this beautiful yet depressing story...
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A MASTERPIECE !
A classic! A must-watch! I swear this movie will haunt you till the day you die. I believe Raise the Red Lantern is one of the best films by Yi-Mou Zhang. He criticizes Capitalism, Patriarchy, Misogyny, and the power structures in society. Also, dammmn Gong Li is something else. When a man wished Songlian to live 100 years, she says, " Oh Please I don't want to live that long ".I felt that...bro, I felt that deep down my body.
This movie will haunt me for sure. Classic! The cinematography, screenplay, music, color...every single aspect of it is to be lived for.
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