The Qiao Compound is located 30 kilometers north west of the historic Pingyao city lies the historic Qiao family home of Raise the Red Lantern fame...
in the ancient city of PingyaoPingyao County is a county in central Shanxi province, China. It lies about 715 km from Beijing and 80 km from the provincial capital, Taiyuan. During the Qing Dynasty, Pingyao was a financial center of China...
, in Shanxi Province. Although the screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
was approved by Chinese censorCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
s, the final version of the film was banned in China for a period. Some film critics have interpreted the film as a veiled allegoryAllegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal. An allegory is a device that can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, or in visual form, such as in painting or sculpture...
against Chinese communistThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party...
authoritarianismAuthoritarianism describes a form of government characterized by an emphasis on the authority of state in a republic or union. It is a political system controlled by typically non-elected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom....
. The film's popularity has also been attributed to helping Chinese tourism after the government response to the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, referred to in most of the Western world as the Tiananmen Square massacre and in the People's Republic of China as the June Fourth Incident , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the PRC beginning on 14 April...
.
Plot
The film is set in 1920s China during the warlord eraThe warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to 1928, when the country was divided among military cliques, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong,...
, years before the Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China . The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC...
. Nineteen-year-old Songlian (頌蓮, played by Gong LiGong Li is a China-born film actress with current nationality in Singapore. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States.She has twice been awarded the...
), whose father has recently died and left the family bankrupt, marries into the wealthy Chen family, becoming the fourth wife or rather the third concubine — or, as she is referred to, the Fourth Mistress — of the household. Arriving at the palatial abode, she is at first treated like royalty, receiving sensuous foot massages and brightly-lit red lanternA lantern is a portable lighting device used to illuminate broad areas. Lanterns may be used for signaling, or as general light sources for camping...
s, as well as nightly visits from her husband, Master Chen (Ma Jingwu), the master of the house.
Songlian soon discovers, however, that not all the concubines in the household receive the same luxurious treatment. In fact, the master decides on a daily basis the concubine he will spend the night with; whomever he chooses gets her lanterns lit, receives the foot massage, gets her choice of menu items at mealtime, and gets the most attention and respect from the servants. Pitted in constant competition against each other, the three concubines are continually vying for their husband's attention and affections.
The First Mistress, Yuru (Jin Shuyuan), appears to be nearly as old as the master himself. Having borne a son decades earlier, she seems resigned to live out her life as forgotten, always passed over in favor of the younger concubines. The Second Mistress, Zhuoyun (Cao Cuifen), befriends Songlian, complimenting her youth and beauty, and giving her expensive silkSilk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
as a gift; she also warns her about the Third Mistress, Meishan (He Caifei), a former operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer who is spoiled and who becomes unable to cope with no longer being the youngest and most favored of the master's playthings. As time passes, though, Songlian learns that it is really Zhuoyun, the Second Mistress, who is not to be trusted; she is subsequently described as having the face of the BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c...
, yet possessing the heart of a scorpionScorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. There are about 2,000 species of scorpions, found widely distributed south of about 49° N, except New Zealand and Antarctica...
.
Songlian feigns pregnancy, attempting to garner the majority of the master's time and, at the same time, attempting to become actually pregnant. Zhuoyun, however, is in league with Songlian's personal maid, Yan'er (燕兒, played by Kong LinKong Lin is a Chinese actress. Born in Hangzhou, Kong graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1987 before beginning her career in acting...
) who finds and reveals a pair of bloodied undergarments, suggesting that Songlian had recently had her period, and discovers the pregnancy is a fraud.
Zhuoyun summons the family physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
, feigning concern for Songlian's "pregnancy." Doctor Gao (Cui Zhigang), who is secretly having an illicit affair with Third Mistress Meishan, examines Songlian and determines the pregnancy to be a sham. Infuriated, the master orders Songlian's lanterns covered with thick black canvas bags indefinitely. Blaming the sequence of events on Yan'er, Songlian reveals to the house that Yan'er's room is filled with lit red lanterns, showing that Yan'er dreams of becoming a Mistress instead of a lowly servant; it is suggested earlier that Yan'er is in love with the Master and has even slept with him in the Fourth Mistress' bed.
Yan'er is punished by having the lanterns burned while she kneels in the snow, watching as they smolder. In an act of defiance, Yan'er refuses to humble herself or apologize and thus remains kneeling in the snow throughout the night until she collapses. Yan'er falls sick and ultimately dies after being taken to the hospital. One of the servants tells Songlian that her former maid died with her mistress's name on her lips. Songlian, who had briefly attended universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
before the passing of her father and being forced into marriage, comes to the conclusion that she is happier in solitude; she eventually sees the competition between the concubines as a useless endeavor, as each woman is merely a "robe" that the master may wear and discard at his discretion.
As Songlian retreats further into her solitude, she begins speaking of suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
; she reasons that dying is a better fate than being a concubine in the Chen household. The opulent estate, while initially seeming lavish and elegant, gradually morphs into a metaphorical prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
compound in young Songlian's eyes.
On her twentieth birthday, severely intoxicated and despondent over her bitter fate, Songlian inadvertently blurts out the details of the love affair between Meishan and Doctor Gao. Zhuoyun overhears the information and catches the adulterous couple together. Following the old customs and traditions, Meishan is dragged to a lone room on the roof of the estate and hanged to death by the master's servants.
Songlian, already in agony due to the fruitlessness of her life, witnesses the entire episode and is emotionally traumatized. The following summer, after the master's marriage to yet another concubine, Songlian is shown wandering the compound in her old schoolgirl clothes, having gone completely insane.
Cast
- Gong Li
Gong Li is a China-born film actress with current nationality in Singapore. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States.She has twice been awarded the...
— Songlian (fourth mistress)
- He Caifei — Meishan (third mistress)
- Cao Cuifen — Zhuoyun (second mistress)
- Qi Zhao — Housekeeper
- Lin Kong — Yan'er (Songlian's young servant)
- Jin Shuyuan — Yuru (first wife)
- Ma Jingwu — Master Chen
- Cui Zhihgang — Doctor Gao
- Xiao Chu — Feipu (the master's eldest son)
- Cao Zhengyin — (Songlian's old servant)
- Ding Weimin — Songlian's mother
Distribution
Raise the Red Lantern has been distributed both on VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
and DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
by numerous different distributors, with many coming under criticism for their poor quality.
The Razor Digital Entertainment DVD release has been widely criticised. DVD Times states "Many other viewers will find this DVD release simply intolerable." DVDTown criticised the same release, giving the video quality 1 out of 10 and the audio quality 6 out of 10, summarising that "the video is a disaster". DVDFile adds to this stating "this horrible DVD is only recommended to those who love the movie so much, that they’ll put up with anything to own a Region 1 release." The translation on this version has been also widely criticised for its numerous inaccuracies. A release by Rajon Vision has also received poor commentary
EraAn era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma–66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event. When used in...
's first release received similar attention but the second digitally remastered edition has been more warmly received with DVD Times stating that "It's a film that really needs a CriterionThe Criterion Collection is a video distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to cinema aficionados. In 1984, Janus Films and the Voyager Company established The Criterion Collection as a privately held company concentrating exclusively upon the North American home...
edition with a new print or a full restoration, but in the absence of any likelihood of that, this Era Hong Kong edition is about as good as you could hope for." DVDBeaver broadly agrees stating "Now, this is not Criterion image quality, but it is not bad at all. It is easily the best digital representation of this film currently available." DVD Talk, though, believes that "This new version is a stunner".
A new MGM release in 2007 has also received some positive feedback.
Reception
Described as being "one of the landmark films of the 1990s" by an Allmovie reviewer, where it received 5 stars, since its release Raise the Red Lantern has been very well received. James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Biography:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and spent his early childhood in Morristown. At the age of nine, he moved to Cherry Hill. He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and...
named it his 7th best film of the 1990s. It has a 96% certified fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and TV GuideTV Guide is a North American weekly magazine about television programming.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews. Some issues have also featured horoscope listings and crossword puzzles.-Annenberg/Triangle era: The...
gave it 5 stars. However, there was a small number of negative reviews. Hal Hinson of the Washington Post stated that "the story never amounts to much more than a rather tepid Chinese rendition of "The Women.""
The film has also been praised for its artistic merit. Desson Howe of the Washington Post states that "In purely aesthetic terms, "Raise the Red Lantern" is breathtaking" and James Berardinelli states that "the appeal to the eye only heightens the movie's emotional power".
The film has been interpreted by some critics as a criticism of contemporary China, although Zhang Yimou himself has sternly denied this.. Jonathon Crow of Allmovie states that "the perpetual struggle for power that precludes any unity among the wives provides a depressingly apt metaphor for the fragmented civil society of post-Cultural Revolution China". James Berardinelli makes a similar analogy in his review where he states that "Songlian is the individual, the master is the government, and the customs of the house are the laws of the country. It's an archaic system that rewards those who play within the rules and destroys those who violate them."
Wins
- Silver Lion for Best Director - (1991 Venice International Film Festival)
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1992 New York Film Critics Circle)
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1992 David di Donatello Italian Film Awards)
- Best Cinematography - - Zhao Fei (1992 Los Angeles Film Critics Association
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association was founded in 1975. Its main purpose is to present yearly awards to members of the film industry who have excelled in their fields. These awards are presented each January...
)
- Best Film Not in the English Language - (1993 British Academy Film Awards
The British Academy Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . It is often cited as the British equivalent to the Oscars. In 2008, it took place in the Royal Opera House, having taken place since 2000 in the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester...
)
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1993 National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics or NSFC is an American film critic organization. The NSFC currently consists of approximately 60 members who write for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers as of December 2007.-History:...
)
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1993 London Film Critics Circle
The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of the The Critics' Circle is known internationally.The word London was added because it was thought the term Critics' Circle Film Awards lacked meaning — for people in LA for example — and the Film Section wished its annual...
)
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1993 Kansas City Film Critics Circle
The Kansas City Film Critics Circle is a group of media film critics and one of the oldest recognized voting groups in the country. It was founded by the late Dr. Loutzenhiser....
)
- Best Cinematography - (1993 National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics or NSFC is an American film critic organization. The NSFC currently consists of approximately 60 members who write for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers as of December 2007.-History:...
)
- Best Actress (Gong Li) - (1993 Hundred Flowers Awards
The People's Hundred Flowers Awards are considered, together with the Golden Rooster Awards, the most prestigious film awards in China. The awards were set up by China Film Association in 1962 and sponsored by People's Film magazine, which has the greatest circulation in China.The awards were...
)
Nominations
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1992 Academy Awards
The 64th Academy Awards were presented March 30, 1992 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The show was the third consecutive to be hosted by Billy Crystal...
)
- Golden Lion for Best Film - (1991 Venice International Film Festival)
- Best Foreign Film - (1992 National Board of Review)
- Best Foreign Language Film - (1993 Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers....
)
External links
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