Rating: 
Summary: Superb!!
Review: It's the kind of movie that I would never get bored nor tired of watching it over and over again. La recomiendo por el mensaje tan profundo y los valores que remarca.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: The word "beautiful" says it all. "Raise the Red Lantern" is thoroughly beautiful in very quiet manner. Beautiful colors, beautiful scenery, beautiful Gong Li...Tragedy can be a joy to watch. I also recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Breath taking
Review: Perhaps more Americans should take an interest in foreign cinema and see how great movies are truly made. I've yet to find an American made film so haunting and wonderful. Gong Li's acting is peerless.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Beautiful Film Ever Made?
Review: "Best" and "Most Beautiful" are surely subjective terms, yes? But I would argue that no film made rises quite to the same level as "Raise the Red Lantern". Every frame is so well-filmed that a worthy painter could render at random any single frame on canvas and have before him a valuable work of art. Gong Li, in her strongest role, deserves whatever accolades and immortality that role will inevitably impart to her, her emotional complexity, intelligence and intensity so perfectly conveyed despite the inconvenience of English sub-titles. She is peerless among actresses, even among those who are very nearly flawless. Zhang Yimou conveys the tragedy of a pre-communist China, wherein women are regarded as property merely, to be used at their lord's convenience. Zhang, in a masterful stroke, never does show the audience the lord's face, except once, from a distance far enough to forbid him being distinguished. For men, as regarded in "Raise the Red Lantern" are, in fact faceless, representative of a system close to collapsing in upon itself. The modern audience is justly horrified at what unravels. "Raise the Red Lantern" is without rival, not even from Peter Greenaway, besides Zhang the greatest director alive; and certainly not from Chen Kaige, Zhang's formidible but finally inferior mentor. Perhaps Zhang himself comes closest in "Ju Dou", "Red Sorghum", and "To Live"; and perhaps Zhang's greatest masterpiece can be surpassed only by Zhang himself at some later date. One can only hope that he and Gong Li will someday mend fences, for no director/actor combination has ever so consistently presented to the world such dark visions so beautifully and intelligently wrought.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful & haunting movie that bears repeat viewing.
Review: I caught this movie on the CBC channel late Sat. night and I was floored by it's visual beauty and haunting storyline. The quality of the cinematography, direction and acting is exceptionally high. The film grabs you and doesn't let go until it reaches it final tragic ending. Gong Li is special as Songlian, however the acting by the rest of the cast is also first-rate. This is a film that has to be viewed more than once to truly appreciate its special qualities. Looking forward to getting it on video so that I can see it again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I absolutely love this film - it's difficult to get Chinese films in PAL format in the UK, but I managed to get this one from a local store after much looking - I really recommend it. The camera angles are inspiring, and the plot works remarkably well. I have read the book by Su Tong, as well, and though much in the book and in the film does not match, it is a inspirational adaption. I hope that one day "Opium Family" by the same author gets made into a film too!!
Rating:
Summary: One of Gong Li's best performances
Review: Gong Li is excellent in every movie she appears in, but this happens to be one of my favorites. Perhaps it's because it is the first movie I saw her in. She is exquisite as a young woman forced to quit college after her father dies. Her stepmother encourages her to marry a rich man and she becomes 4th wife to a rich businessman. Independent and intelligent, she doesn't blend well into the household where women are expected to be subservient and agreeable. Tension mounts as the wives plot against each other in a household where secrets are deadly and schemes can backfire in horrendous ways. Aside from the intruiging story, this film is full of beautiful cinematography. Zhang Yimou is excellent at creating atmposphere and beauty. Gong Li is gorgeous but also seriously astute. A must see.
Rating: 
Summary: Says, "See it twice!"
Review: See this movie if you love the expressive face of Gong Li. With many plots and subplots the end is expected yet still catches you by surprise. See it more than once to catch the subtle interplay between the women characters. Some may call this a woman's movie. But if you love the beauty and talent of Gong Li, then this is a winner.Louindc
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Chinese films I have ever seen
Review: Excellent cinematography. The story is gripping and it is a telling snapshot of China and its values during the period.
Rating:
Summary: Exquisite film from a master storyteller
Review: Gong Li is utterly perfect as Songlian, the youngest 4th wife of a great landowner in 1920's China. When she joins the household of the Master, with his 3 other wives and numerous servants, she is little prepared for the infinite under-currents and jealousies of the wives and the continuous baiting of the servants. She is put in a house of her own off the main courtyard of the rambling estate, a vast maze of connected buildings. But the wives are not quite out of earshot of each other, and what can be overheard feeds the hate among them. When the Master has chosen the wife he wishes to spend the night with, huge red lanterns are lit and hung around the outside and inside of the house of that wife and she is given a foot massage with small weighted silver hammers whose castanet-like sounds echo through the entire complex, and they serve as an ` overt display to the others that they were not good enough on that day to win his affections and must try harder the next day. As each jockeys for the Master's attention, Songlian is at first expertly played against the other women but eventually learns to scheme and conspire as well as they. She is never sure exactly which of the other wives is her enemy or her friend, and the situation seems to change daily. After she makes a grand power play that fails, in part because of a jealous young female servant, she is effectively in exile for a time. However, a terrible, centuries-old custom will unfold in one of the topmost, locked rooms of the complex during her exile, and Songlian eventually discovers the dreadful secret. This is a masterful film which only gets better on each viewing.
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