Based on Su Tong's 1990 novel" Wives and Concubines" Zhang Yimou"s third film is the touching story of Songlian, a proud and independent university student forced by her step mother to become a wealthy older man's fourth wife or concubine because of her family's financial ruin and her father's death.Filmed in a beautiful mansion in the North of China,the drama debuts with Sonlian making her way by herself to the Chen compound where she is given the royal treatment .There he meets the other wives the older first wife, the apparently friendly second wife,Zhuonyun,the spoiled ,attention seeking third wife,Meishan, a former Opera singer,and the servant Yan'er who is secretly in love with the master and aspires to become his concubine.The red lanterns are a symbol of a wife's privilege.Every night the lanterns are lit at the house that the master is going to visit.The wife is prepared with a foot massage and offered her favorite food. Sonlian explores this world of privilege , ritual,and restraint in which the mansion plays a central part.She discovers "the forbidden "room where two women had lost their lives for marital transgressions.She realizes that her only chance of survival is to have a child When she finds out that the maid Yan'er and the second wife are plotting against her she sinks into depression .She feigns pregnancy and when her ruse is discovered she loses all her privileges and her red lanterns are covered n black cloth.She finds out about a secret affair and she inadvertently reveals it causing someone's death.It is a movie of great pictorial beauty and strong passions about 1920s China.Seen as a protest against totalitarianism, the movie was banned in China but it was released in Europe and the Us to great reviews
edited by scarjan on 5/7/2015
edited by scarjan on 5/7/2015
edited by scarjan on 5/7/2015
edited by scarjan on 5/8/2015
edited by scarjan on 5/8/2015
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Raise The Red Lantern
05/15/2015 06:34 AM
#1
Raise The Red Lantern
The famous Chinese director of "Raise the Red Lantern" and of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is accused of breaking the "one child' law for fathering 7 children by different women.He is facing a penalty of up to 26 million US dollars .He and his wife appologised profusely to the Chinese people for using the public services.
edited by scarjan on 5/14/2015
edited by scarjan on 5/14/2015
I watched this movie last weekend- it had the highest recommendations in the video store.
Despite the overtly sexual theme, no sexual act or even nudity is depicted so it is fine to use in a classroom. There is no sensuality in dealing with the master of the house, in fact the only time we see an expression of pleasure from Songlian is when she is receiving a foot massage. We experience isolation and loneliness far more than romance. As the mistresses of the house compete with each other to win the favors of the master of the house they are all trying reach beyond isolation they experience forced to live in their secluded houses.
The time period is the 1920s. I imagine that with the rise of communism in China this type of wealthy lifestyle with large complexes and multiple wives fell into the past. Beyond the literary elements of loneliness and despair there are themes of women's rights and women's roles. The fate of one of the mistresses is sealed when she is caught having an extra-marital affair which by tradition is punishable by death. The master of the house, a male, was free not only to marry four (or five at the end) times but to carry on with the female servants of the house as well. Students would be very quick to notice this double standard.
I am glad to read your comments about the movie.I actually showed it to my French 3 class and we reviewed family related vocabulary.We had an interesting conversation about American girls in the 20s, the flappers, and the choices of a poor but educated girl from China . My students also asked me about foot binding and i explained that by the 1920s it was not as widespread as before..I listened to a few interesting opinions about why men would find this appealing. It was a great idea to get away from the boring and uninspiring textbook.A breath of fresh air.