Film of the week: Raise the Red Lantern
Chinese director Zhang Yimou is well known for directing a series of spectacular Chinese blockbusters such as Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006).
However, there is much more to the filmmaker than just these large-scale epics. Before he embraced these big budget spectaculars, he built a reputation as a key figure in what is known as the ‘fifth generation’ of Chinese filmmakers. Key to that standing is 1991’s Raise the Red Lantern.
Having graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, he went on to work as a cinematographer on films such as Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth (1984), before making his directorial debut with Red Sorghum in 1988. His next major festival hit was Ju Dou in 1990 which consolidated his reputation for making engaging and visually sumptuous works. This early work was critically lauded as it appeared at international film festivals, with many critics remarking on the magisterial look of the films and the director’s careful use of colour.
Raise the Red Lantern was Zhang Yimou’s fourth film and won him the best director Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. It also marked another collaboration with actor Gong Li who plays Songlian a young woman who, when her father dies, is forced to marry into a wealthy family. The film explores her trials and tribulations in her new life and is one of the defining works of modern Chinese cinema.
Given the striking aesthetic approach Zhang Yimou adopts throughout the film and the subtleties of the performances on display, there is no better way to experience Raise the Red Lantern on the big screen, restored in 4K for its 35th anniversary.
HOME offers that opportunity on Saturday 7th November at 3.00pm:
By Andy Willis, Visiting Curator and Professor of Film Studies at University of Salford