Raise the Red Lantern

Rating:
Summary: Fourth Mistress!!
Review: Gong Li is one of the best actors in asian cinema. Her performance in "Raise the red lantern" won her various awards. She also stared in "ju dou" another excellent film by the same director. Ju dou has one of the best endings i ever seen in a film, It's a sad and tragic story, but beautiful.
Raise the red lantern opened me up to asian drama films and i've been in love with them ever since. It also has one of the best endings i've ever seen in a film, probably the best ever. The cinematography is too good to be true. The story is also tragic, but beautiful. I hope they finally release this wonderful film on DVD soon, a special edition or criterion edition.

Rating:
Summary: Strong and willful...and helpless
Review: Well its impossible not to give this film five stars because it is an example of consummate craft both in acting and directing but there is something about this story which I find a bit unsavory. Of course the whole story of a man having four 'wives' who are really not any more than kept women or concubines is unsavory but even so this vision of harem life is especially disturbing as the women in this harem all turn out to be either petty or downright vicious. Perhaps this infighting is inherent in this kind of situation but the infighting in this case becomes deadly and the film leaves you feeling like many films from the new Chinese cinema leave you feeling and thats that old China was bad for women. This is probably true, it is probably also true that old feudal China(and its really not so very ancient history, this picture takes place in the 1920's) was good only for a handful of powerful feudal lords. But there is another message in this film and thats that willful women get punished. That is another unsavory aspect of this film. The Gong Li character was willful and proud before she ever entered the compound as wife number three and yet she came of her own free will. Much is made of the fact that she unlike the other wives was educated and has a brain and will of her own but nonetheless she becomes as petty as the others. The film is very powerful as it is but it just rings false to me that the Gong Li character would not find a way to continue cultivating her mind and become a stronger and stronger presence as she gained age and wisdom. In other words I think a willful woman would not allow herself to be undermined by others so easily. But she does so and she simply becomes another victim that loses her identity in bits and pieces until she is nothing but a walking shadow. It almost seems that Zhang Yimou is just reaffirming all our suspicions about backward old China. Of course to a westerner the most valued thing is individuality so it almost seems Yimou is catering to our own fears in the telling of this story about identity robbery. It is a captivating story and it is impossible not to admire the consummate craftsmanship with which it is put together but there is something inconsistent about the psychology of that main character and though it may be true that women had no official powers in old china it is also certainly true that women did exert their influence in unofficial ways but the Chinese to this day(Zhang Yimou included)do not tell stories about powerful women who are not punished. In Shanghai Triad Gong Li plays another kind of willful woman who also unintentionally brings about destruction and again she meets a similar fate. Its a strange kind of role she plays in both films. She is willful and cruel and selfish and yet somehow we don't blame her for it and she wins our sympathy in the end because she is ultimately rendered helpless.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Film
Review: Beyond being the story of a woman who decides to become the 4th wife of a rich man, this film also foreshadows the Communist regime to come. This film is full of metaphors. Each wife symbolizes something that the Chinese people gave up in order to obtain the economic equality promised by communism. The first wife symbolizes China's history and traditions, the second wife with her cut-throat, backstabbing ways symbolizes personal integrity, the third wife who gave up her opera career symbolizes the art community that became a sterile machine for turning out Communist propaganda, the fourth wife who gave up her university studies represents the loss of intellectual freedom and progress under Mao who was well-known for his hatred of intellectuals, and the fifth wife who has no story represents the future of the Chinese people. What will become of her? This question is left unanswered. The husband represents the Chinese communist government, micromanaging it's citizens and even forcing them to live in compounds. The wives never know from one day to the next which wife will be favored and given power over the household, just as it was with the revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries. This is a wonderful film with so many layers, you can watch it again and again and see new things each time. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the hype
Review: I found this movie to be rather boring. From what everyone has said about this movie I had my expectations very high. It was not HORRIBLE, but in my opinion I expected better. I enjoyed the movie, "To Live" whom also stars this film's leading actress, a lot better.

Rating:
Summary: Gong Li is the BEST unknown actress in the world...
Review: If there were any fairness in Hollywood, Gong Li would have won the Acamedy Award for Best Actress for any one of her many movies. Besides being drop-dead gorgeous, she is an exquisite actress of the first order. The opening scene of this movie will convince anyone of this fact. Raise the Red Lantern is a thinking, engrossing movie that dispenses with special effects and overwhelming scores and concentrates on aspects mainstream Hollywood has abandoned - Excellent Story and Excellent Acting. The plot has been well documented - suffice to say the first thing you'll want to do once the movie is over is to watch it again.

BTW, this is my second favorite movie with Gong Li. The best is "To Live", ... However, that movie is fantastic - even better than Raise the Red Lantern. Highly highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Raise the Red Lantern - Review
Review: I came across this movie the first FOUR times, on late night television. Every time i watched this film I was entranced by the breathtaking cinematography, and the diversity of the characters portrayed. There was no turning away from the television until the movie was done. So I ended up coming into the movie at different times, but always watched it through to the end. I finally bought the movie, and watched it from beginning to end for the first time. Needless to say I was not dissapointed!

The story is of a 19 year-old college girl, Songlia, in 1920's China. She is forced to make a hard decision after her father dies. She agrees to become a concubine to a wealthy nobleman, and to discontinue her schooling, having no money support it.
She is the fourth mistress to her husband, and slowly becomes aware of the expectations and customs of the household, not to mention the demented relations between the wives.
As the story unfolds Songlia begins to realize the dark veil surrounding the house, and all the secrets it keeps.
And what better way to end this film then with tradgedy!

This movie is a haunting tale of China's dark history. It will mystify and horrify you, as you witness the deterioration of a human, and the web of treachery it weaves!

Rating:
Summary: Raise your glass to Raise the Red Lantern
Review: A haunting film that demands repeated viewing - if not to more fully comprehend this great work, but to absorb the cold beauty of this film.

Gong Li and her one-time fiance and oft-time director Zhang Yimou have crafted a sublime work that is sure to endure.

Li's ability to convey emotion with the slightest movement of her face is remarkable - she is able to accomplish a great deal with a minimum of fuss, yet her characters are invariably more complex and rich than filigree - particualarly this one.

The visual aspect of this film is equally as admirable. The evocative and imposing great house is a perfect backdrop for the wives to play out their web of intrigue and conflict, contributing to, and participating in an age old custom of hierarchism.

And in that perpetuation each finds their doom, in one way or another - but the fact that they all seek it makes the situation all the more fascinating.

A movie that is not to be missed under any circumstance. I am positive that all shall raise their glass to toast this truly fine film.

Rating:
Summary: A Haunting and Depressing Story of Caged Soul...
Review: "Raise the Red Lantern," is one of the best movies I have ever seen. The movie, though long, is unlike any story i have seen. What else can I say, but that this movie's art, emotions, and plot, could not have been produced, or actor any better. As we could say, Raise the Red Lantern...is indeed perfect in all areas...

Rating:
Summary: Life in a gilded cage
Review: "Raise the Red Lantern" offers us a fascinating look at life in early 20th-century China. It tells us the story of Songlian (Gong Li in her best role to date), 19 years old, harassed by her mother to leave college and marry after her father's death leaves the family impoverished. If she has to marry, she reasons, she might as well marry a rich man, and heedless of her mother's warnings that she will become little better than a concubine in a rich man's house (or, who knows, perhaps to spite her mother for forcing her to leave school), she becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy businessman. From the start, everything goes wrong. Even her status in the household as fourth wife is ominous (the number four is considered unlucky in Chinese); she is an independent maverick in a place where she is expected to conform, and she finds herself trapped by the "customs of the house" which must be rigidly adhered to at all times. With nothing to do to occupy their time, the wives spend their days scheming against each other; the first wife, old and no longer attractive, at least has the status of being the mother of the oldest son; the second wife, jealous of the younger women, plots at their destruction, and the third wife fights against the constraints of her existence by taking the disastrous step of an extramarital affair. Songlian is no match for the forces arrayed against her in this menage; when she tries to assert her place by falsifying a pregnancy and her ruse is discovered, she is relegated to a state of perpetual disgrace. Shunned by the master of the house and held in contempt by everyone else, ignored even on her birthday, she retaliates by getting drunk and blurting out the secret of the third wife's liaison. The "customs of the house" demand the ultimate punishment, and the third wife meets the fate which other adulterous wives in the family have met before her. Songlian is left to go slowly and inexorably insane in this exquisite prison while the master of the house takes yet another wife, this one even younger than she is. Gong Li is incredible as Songlian; she is so stunningly beautiful and such a great actress that she dominates every scene she is in. The film moves slowly but it's never boring, and although it's shot almost entirely within the confines of the house, the complexities of the building underscore the complexities of the relationship to the master and to each other that the wives are trapped in. Zhang Yimou has directed other fine films, but Red Lantern is his masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Achievement
Review: Zhang Yimou's "Raise the Red Lantern" is an extraordinary achievement. Like Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" alerting the cinematic world to the rising of the French New Wave, Yimou's film serves as fair warning to all that the best films in the world are now coming out of Asia.

No, I'm not overstating it.

In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian (Gong Li) is sent to the home of a feudal nobleman to become his fourth wife. While the servants treat her as a princess, it doesn't take Songlian long to realize that she is trapped in a gilded cage and that her life, and the lives of all around her, now revolve around the whims of one very selfish man.

Songlian dreams of what her life could have been had she been allowed to finish her education. The third wife dreams of what her life could have been had marriage not ended her opera career. The second wife dreams of what her life could have been had she been able to give the Master a son. And the female servants dream of how wonderful life must be to live as one of the Master's wives.

Yimou films the story with an astonishing beauty, giving even a scene of deadly violence (mercifully hidden from the camera) a gorgeous look. Yimou is also very aware of his leading actress's incredible beauty and he coaxes more expressions from Gong Li's face than it would seem one person is capable of making.

If you have any hesitations about viewing a subtitled film, put them aside and allow yourself to be taken on one of the most wonderful cinematic journeys you will ever travel.