There has been a very long delay between the last post and this one, I know. Long story short, I'm going through computer issues right now so I'm not able to upload screenshots. I'm still able to watch movies on my PC, but I have to do it using Media Player Classic, which is unable to capture pics at the correct aspect ratio. Seeing as how I don't want to put warped pictures of movies up here (wait a minute, maybe I do... maybe I do....) I figured that I could put off doing a real review for a while and do something different. I have some time to spare; I'm working my way through the TV show Planetes right now and should be finished by the end of next week.
Anyways, I thought I would do something amusing until I get this issue resolved and post two of my (short) old college film class papers online. Now you can marvel at some of my earliest attempts at film criticism. SEE! The feeble attempts at serious analysis and criticism! READ! The dry and overly stilted academic language! LAUGH! At the fact that I was obviously watching The Prisoner for the first time while writing these and tried to find a way to work it into a college paper!
Seriously, I sincerely hope that I have progressed in my writing since I wrote these. For those of you who are curious, these were written for a Chinese film history course, hence the Middle Kingdom motif.
Also, there are massive spoilers since I didn't have to worry about ruining the endings of the movies for the professor.
You have been warned.
Raise the Red Lantern: A Film Review
Raise the Red Lantern, a film based on a story by Su Tong is a tale set in a wealthy Chinese household in the Nineteen-Twenties. Specifically, it chronicles the arrival and subsequent experiences of Songlian, a young woman who has married the master of the family. She is not the only “mistress” in the house though and shares the Master with three other concubines, each given her own house on the palace grounds. The Red Lantern in the title refers to the lights put outside a concubine’s house when the Master sleeps there that night (and thus grants privileges to the denizen of that house). The Mistresses are thus always trying to gain favor and the right to light the lanterns at their house. The film deals with the relationships and politics between these four women and the tragic results.
The acting in this film is of high quality. Actress Gong Li does a good job of portraying Songlian as progressing from an inexperienced newcomer to a vicious plotter who is on par with the other two rival concubines (the First Mistress is too old to be of importance). The story offers a twist in that the one mistress who seems to be the nicest is in fact the most poisonous and vice versa (although it is not that surprising, at least not to an experienced or cynical viewer). The only minor deficit to this film is that Director Yimou Zhang tends to linger a little too long in some shots on the scenery (which is beautiful though). All of the shots in this film are static: there is no moving camera, no wipes and little to no zooming in or out. Perhaps this was a way for the Director to portray the lack of change in the self-contained world of the Master’s House (the film takes place during a time of great change in China: ten years before this story starts the Qing Dynasty had been overthrown and a Republic set up).
The Household of Raise the Red Lantern is very traditional and patriarchal in nature (being a last vestige of the old customs of the wealthy upper-classes of China) the prime example being of course that the head of the family has concubines. This is interesting in that nowhere in the film are the women referred to as “wives” even though they are “married” to the Master. The Master (who’s face is never clearly seen) is always called “the Master” as well, not “husband.” This combined with the fact that the Mistresses have separate quarters implies that the relationship is more akin to slavery than marriage (at least marriage in the modern understanding of the word).
Much like “The Village” from the classic surreal television series The Prisoner the Master’s household is beautiful and pleasant on the surface but sinister underneath. The concubines plot against and with each other while the servants assist in their scheming or perpetrate deviousness of their own. The Third Mistress is even killed when it is discovered that she has had an extra-marital affair. Thus it might be deduced that the “old family customs” of favoritism and rewards serves as indirect means of control of the women by having them quarrel amongst themselves (and thus keeping them occupied and not thinking about other things) while the harsh punishments (such as death to adulteresses and isolation to those that displease the Master) serve as very direct means of control. The disturbing fact is that Songlian never eventually triumphs over the other Mistresses or even escapes from the place that she realizes is becoming more and more nightmarish. She eventually goes insane after the death of the Third Mistress (which she was unwillingly responsible for). Even more disturbing though is the ending which reveals that the Master has married yet again and that the process has started over. The message then of the film is clear: Those who allow themselves to be manipulated and encouraged to fight amongst themselves will only be controlled and will experience death and misery.
The Directing Style of Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou like most film directors has a distinct directing style that sets him apart from his peers. This directing technique is unique in both its technical aspect and its content. A study of two of his films, Red Sorghum and Raise the Red Lantern illustrates this.
Technically Zhang’s direction in both films is the same. He is very static with his shots: there is very little movement of the camera (i.e. there is no panning and no following or tracking of characters except in rare cases). Also Zhang is fond of showing lengthy shots of scenery to set the mood and build tension. In Red Lantern he does this to show the bleak state of the inside of the mansion and to foreshadow the suffering that will take place there. In Red Sorghum there are extended shots of the sorghum fields to set the scene for the film and to build tension at the end right before the moment in the movie where the main protagonists attack a Japanese Army truck.
The main similarity in content and the most noticeable between Red Sorghum and Raise the Red Lantern is the heavy use of the color red. Besides (obviously) being in both of the films’ titles, red is seen in vast quantities throughout both films. The wine made from the sorghum in Red Sorghum is red (hence the title) and the sky at the end of the film (after the narrator’s grandmother and her companions have been brutally slaughtered by the Japanese) turns red during a solar eclipse. The lanterns in Raise the Red Lantern are red (also seen in the title) and red light always bathes the house of the mistress chosen to sleep with the Master that night. Red in both of these films can thus be seen as symbolizing communism (red has always been a symbol for communism). Red Sorghum conveys a positive attitude towards communism, portraying it as the main element in the struggle against the Japanese occupation of the Nineteen Thirties and Forties. The narrator’s grandfather “sees red” after the day in which his friends and loved ones are killed by the Japanese. A main character (the old foreman) is shown as being a suspected communist and being flayed alive. In Raise the Red Lantern communism is hinted at as a way of controlling people with promises of comforts and dividing the people against each other while dealing out harsh punishments to those who transgress the laws (like the Third Mistress). Zhang’s view of the Communist Party then seems to have changed between the two films (Red Sorghum was released before Raise the Red Lantern).
There is also a tendency for Zhang to avoid showing the masters of households. In Red Lantern the Master is never shown directly (i.e. there is no clear shot of his face). Likewise the old leper Master of the winery in Red Sorghum is never shown at all in the short time that he is a character in that film. This might symbolize the remoteness and impersonal nature of the leadership in China.
The central message of both films seems to be that when human beings come together and stand against with each other they can stand against anything and achieve something no matter how small and futile-seeming. Most of the wine workers at the end of Red Sorghum die in their assault of the Japanese Army truck but they showed that they refused to be dominated by the Japanese and that they would avenge the death of their brothers. However, the concubines that are divided against each other at the end of Red Lantern only bring pain upon each other and will continue to do so under the arcane rules and oversight of the Master. They have achieved nothing but a petty meaningless existence.
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