One of the best films i have seen

Highly Overrated But Still Good

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I knew nothing about this Chinese film before reading about it in the book, then I saw critics gave it high praise and full marks, so I hoped for another deserved listed entry, directed by Yimou Zhang (Red Sorghum, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, The Great Wall). Basically set in the 1920s, nineteen-year-old Songlian (Gong Li) is an educated woman, her father has recently died and left the family bankrupt, she is forced to abandons her studies and marry Chen Zuoqian (Jingwu Ma), the wealthy lord of a powerful family, becoming his fourth wife. Arriving at the palace, Songlian is first treated like royalty, given foot massages and brightly lit red lanterns outside his private quarters, but she soon discovers that not all the concubines in the household receive the same luxurious treatment. The master, whose face is never clearly seen, decides on a daily basis which concubine he will spend the night with, whomever he chooses will get lanterns lit, get luxuries, and get the most attention and respect from servants. This causes the four wives to be in competition against each other, continually vying for their husband's attention and affections. The First Mistress, Yuru (Jin Shuyuan), appears to be almost the same age as the master himself, despite giving the master a son years earlier, she is assigned to live her life as forgotten, passed over in favour of the younger concubines. The Second Mistress, Zhuoyun (Cao Cuifen), befriends Songlian, complimenting her youth and beauty, and giving her expensive silk as a gift. She also warns her about the Third Mistress, Meishan (He Saifei), a former opera singer who is spoiled and is unable to cope with no longer being the youngest and most favoured 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. Songlian pretends to be pregnant, attempting to gain more attention from the master, and at the same time, trying to actually become pregnant. Zhuoyun, however, is in league with Songlian's personal maid, Yan'er (Kong Lin) who finds blood-covered garments, suggesting Songlian had recently had her period, discovering the pregnancy is a fraud. Family physician, Doctor Gao (Cui Zhigang) is summoned by Zhuoyun, the doctor is secretly having an affair with the Third Mistress. The pregnancy is confirmed to be a sham, the master is infuriated, and orders Songlian's lanterns are covered with thick black canvas bags indefinitely. Songlian blames Yan'er for these events, she reveals to the house that Yan'er's room is filled with lit red lanterns, the maid dreams of becoming a mistress instead of a lowly servant, and suggesting she is in love with the master and may have slept with him. Yan'er is punished by having the lanterns burned while she kneels in the snow, watching as they smoulder, she refuses to apologise and remains in the snow throughout the night, she collapses, falls sick and ultimately dies. Songlian is told of the passing of her former maid, she comes to the conclusion that she is happier in solitude, seeing the competition between the concubines as a useless endeavour. As Songlian retreats further into her solitude, she begins speaking of suicide, reasoning that death is a better fate than being a concubine for the lord. On her twentieth birthday, severely intoxicated and despondent, Songlian inadvertently blurts out the details of the love affair between Meishan and Doctor Gao to Zhuoyun, after the adulterous couple are caught together by Zhuoyun, Meishan is dragged to the room of death, she is hanged to death by the master's servants. Songlian, already agonising the fruitlessness of her life, witnesses the hanging and is emotionally traumatized, after the summer, when the master marries a fifth concubine. In the end, Songlian is seen wandering the compound in her old schoolgirl clothes, she has gone completely insane. Also starring Qi Zhao as the Housekeeper and Chu Xiao as Feipu, the master's eldest son. The leading actress is beautiful and compelling as the vulnerable teenager trying to adjust to living under the strict rules and tensions of the household, I just about got the gist of the story, the red lanterns of the title certainly helped, but this is also full of wonderful use of colour, symbolic compositions, stylised sets, terrific costumes and breathtaking rural landscape, an interesting and worthwhile drama. Very good!

Raise the Red Lantern is masterful piece of film history.A bleak tale of sexual subjugation and ruthless scheming in a single opulent household in 1920s China, Raise the Red Lantern portrays four women locked in struggle for attention from the master of the house, who every day favours one of his concubines with special honour of spending a night with him. And as usual among the hereditary nobility, the highest achievement is pregnancy resulting a male child.The tense plot is perfected by the backdrop of suffocating ancient mansion built out of dull bricks and adorned expensively with etchings and drapery, and staffed with servants. The watcher barely gets a glimpse of the outside world as if nothing even existed outside the walls of the compound where the women are imprisoned in concubinage. And almost as faceless is the master himself, whose face we never see in close up shot.Cinematography and set building stand out as excellent, with stark reds of the drapery and lanterns, contrasting with the muted greys of the mansion itself, later covered by a blanket of snow.

This movie is like a piece of westernised Chinese food which added lots of sugar to flatter white people's taste. Unfortunately,it is totally fabricated and make no sense to me as a Chinese. The sugar here is the complicated sexual relationship; whimsical concocted costume,raising the lanterns in the front of mistress is a joke to me ; and slanted eyes main characters, exactly catering the white people's stereotypical view of Asian. I have nothing against director yimou and gong li. As a matter of fact I prefer their other film which called to live. However, if you do not understand Chinese history and China very well you probably do not enjoy this film as you do not know the meaning behind.

The biggest problem with Raise the Red Lantern is what happens to Songlian in the end. There's so much tension, interplay that builds up and there's the very frightening raising of the ot lanterns, so when the Freudian epilogue along with the new introduction is posed as if history endlessly repeats (which it certainly did not) it comes off as unconvincing. Taoist? Stoic? Nihilist? I'm not sure what Chinese women would make of this movie really, except as cinematic candy. And it sure shines on that level. The film is just totally beautiful and Yang Zhimou has a sublime way with lines and light. Still, this is a film trying to be about women directed by a man. It doesn't quite work.