Break it down why 'Raise the Red Lanterns' is in every must-watch list

The movie so enchantingly sophisticated and appealing, which every factor is purposefully at its perfect place to convey the message behind the protagonist’s bitter life. A movie haunted me so bad that I put it down in words.

‘Raise the Red Lantern’ (1991) directed by Zhang Yimou, in my opinion, is the iconic melodrama that embodied the Chinese cinema industry.​It is an adaption from the novel Wives and Concubines (1990) by Su Tong (Young, J. & Yimou, Z. 1993). If every element of the movie is investigated separately one by one they seem monotone, heavy and depressing: few characters with prisoned life, the whole setting is within one house, the film color is antique and opaque, characters speak in slow pace and formal manners, not to mention the haunting background music. Nonetheless when all the elements are put together, the movie is enchantingly sophisticated and appealing, which every factor is purposefully at its perfect place to convey the message behind the protagonist’s bitter life.​The movie revolves around a concubinage of a wealthy lord during the Warlord Era (1920s) in China. Viewers can see the obvious class system and its concomitant desire for power. The class system manipulates people via customs, material wealth and punishments. The Master (the husband) has absolute power in the house, and his preference can elevate the power of the Mistresses. Songlian (Gong Li), a student whose father died and therefore could not afford to complete her education, was married to be the Fourth Mistress in the Chen family. Every day the Master will decide whom he would spend the night with by hanging red lanterns at the mistress’s room and grant her a foot massage. At first Songlian resents the way other Mistresses fight over the Master’s attention, but gradually she was drawn into this fight and used petty conspiracy to win. Eventually traumatized by the cruel death of the other Mistress, she has gone completely insane, closing the movie by wandering hollowly, unable to find escape for her dead-end life, while the Master keeps on marrying new Mistress. This movie has the kind of bitterly dark essence which soaks through me and leaves quite a melancholy.

Gong Li was able to expose her beauty as well as acting skills in the role Songlian, portraying a well-educated and clever lady with high ego. Even when she shows her disgust or loath over something, the facial expression always stay elegantly superior and noble. The Second Mistress (Cao Cuifen), who is described as having “the face of a Buddha but the heart of a scorpion”, craves power to the point of harming other with malicious conspiracy. She has a soft voice and warm gestures, but after her scheme was unraveled, she reveals deep and wicked expression, very well-performed by the actress. The Third Mistress (He Caifei), being a singer, an artist and a rebel who despises the captive life, couldn’t care less about maintaining the favourable image, releases herself through singing, gambling and involving in love affair, which results in her tragic death. Her death is the euphemistic condemnation of the cruel system objectifying women (Deppman 2010). As Songlian’s monologue at the beginning of the movie “Let me be a concubine. Isn't that the fate of a woman?”, it seems like there are no better version of future for them. Songlian was once a student, she could have escaped this vicious cycle, but fate pushes her to the point of insanity.

The Master - supreme of the house - never show his face. We only see his silhouette behind the bed curtain, or hear his voice or his blurred figure, but we can never observe him in details as a character. He, as well as Songlian’s unknown stepmother who forces her into the arranged marriage, represents the authority that controlled Songlian’s life. Although the controller do not appear and give direct order, all the Mistresses unquestioningly obey the invisible force that binds their life to an aged old custom. “Custom” is what in control. Each action is justified based on whether it correlates with the precedented customs. Songlian once asks why the Master made such a fuss hanging lantern, while he could just come to the Mistress whenever he wants. She is replied simply “it’s the custom”. The lanterns appear throughout the entire movie, acting as an independent character and is the tangible representatives of the custom. To the Mistresses, those lit lanterns symbolized favor, power and self-determination. They has such mighty meaning that Yan’er the maid steal them, spreading all over her room just to have a little fantasy about being the Mistress, and refuse to apologize for this until death. Other than the lanterns, director Zhang invests in the use of symbolic objects. The flute from Songlian’s father, represents her only connection with the previous life and her virtual before she becomes a mistress, is seized away. She outrages, but then, realizing she cannot hold on to that memory, decides to sink down the anger and becomes numb.

Zhang Yimou’s films are well-known for their “rich use of color”. He exploits such monochromatic hue as either yellowish, completely white or crimson red. The pace of the movie is very slow in order to capture all the characters’ complicated emotions and symbolic details. The camera usually points straight into the scene, putting the character right in the middle of the frames (especially Songlian), fully reveal her whole facial expression. Many scenes are just simply Songlian’s close-up, for instance the first monologue when she painfully accepts her fate as a concubine, or the tears of shame and disgust on her wedding night.

The movie scenes are very symmetrical, so whatever disproportionate will be left out. The synergy between color and uniform backgrounds creates a dull canvas, accentuating Songlian’s misplaced existence in the house. Wherever she is positioned, she stands out completely from the tightly structured surroundings. The straight angle of the camera produce a stiff and intimidating side of the Chen’s family. The viewer can feel the strong structure of everything in the house which cannot be broken. The first and only outdoor scene was Songlian’s road trip to her new home. From then on every event happens within the Chen’s mansion. The movie closes with the scene Songlian walks mindlessly in the closed front yard, turning whenever she heads to the wall and unable to make any exit, maybe to the rest of her life, gives me a chill.

While the scene is highly stiff and restricted, the sounds and musics are rebellious. The sounds soars highly and openly represent the characters’ desire to break free: for instance the songs of Third Mistress, the flute of the Master’s son… Sound also provokes deep emotions. When the Songlian and Yan’er hear the clattering of the foot massage, they close their eyes to imagine that they were receiving that massage. The sounds call upon their wish just like the bright colour of the lanterns. Musics also give away the feelings, mostly terrifying and unsettling, such as the scary song when Songlian approach the attic to find Third Mistress’ death, or when she cut the ear of the Second Mistress.

The genre of the movie is drama, but it is influenced by many traditional Chinese opera factors and every frames was noticed carefully to the point of perfection (Li-sing 2010) The whole movie was antique and beautifully made. ‘Raise the red lantern’ does not openly criticise the old China society, but through the way it portrays life in a typical family, audience can feel the bitter of women living in this extreme paternity era. Revealing the bare truth about Chinese society at the time, this movie was once banned from public. In my view, this is the must-watch classic movie due to its powerful message conveyed by the refined cinematography, the sophistication of Gong Li and the thorough insight of Chinese culture.

Reference

Young, J. & Yimou, Z. 1993, ‘Raise the Red Lantern’, The American Historical Review, vol. 98, no. 4, pp. 1158

Li-sing, H 2010, ‘Dancing the Red Lantern: Zhang Yimou’s Fusion of Western Ballet and Peking Opera’, Southeast Review of Asian Studies, vol. 32, pp. 129 - 136

Deppman, H 2010, ‘Chapter 2: Su Tong and Zhang Yimou: Women's Places in Raise the Red Lantern’, in Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film, University of Hawaii Press