Raise the Red Lantern

Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 Chinese period drama film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaptation by Ni Zhen of the 1990 novella Raise the Red Lantern (originally Wives and Concubines) by Su Tong. The film was later adapted into an acclaimed ballet of the same title by the National Ballet of China, also directed by Zhang. Set during the Warlord Era in the 1920s, the film tells the story of a young woman who becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy man. It was the third of eight collaborations between Zhang and Gong, following Red Sorghum in 1987 and Ju Dou in 1990. The film was shot in the Qiao Family Compound near the ancient city of Pingyao, in Shanxi Province.

Raise the Red Lantern received widespread critical acclaim. It was entered into the 48th Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion and won the Silver Lion. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. It is considered an important work in the so-called Fifth Generation movement of Chinese cinema and is one of the most internationally highly-regarded films from mainland China overall; it appeared on The New York Times's list of the 1000 best films ever made in 2004 and on the BBC's list of the 100 greatest foreign language films in 2018.

Plot
The film is set in Republican China during the 1920s. Nineteen-year-old Songlian (Gong Li), an educated woman whose father has recently died and left the family bankrupt, is forced by her stepmother to marry into the wealthy Chen family, becoming the fourth wife or, as she is referred to, the Fourth Mistress (Sì Tàitai) of the household. Arriving at the palatial abode, she is at first treated like royalty, receiving sensuous foot massages and brightly lit red lanterns, as well as a visit from her husband, Master Chen (Ma Jingwu), the master of the house, whose face is never clearly shown.

Songlian soon discovers, however, that not all the wives in the household receive the same luxurious treatment. In fact, the master decides on a daily basis which wife he will spend the night with; whomever he chooses gets her lanterns lit, receives the foot massage, gets her choice of menu items at mealtime, and gets the most attention and respect from the servants. Pitted in constant competition against each other, the three wives are continually vying for their husband's attention.

The First Mistress, Yuru (Jin Shuyuan), appears to be nearly as old as the master himself. Having borne a son decades earlier, she seems resigned to living out her life as forgotten, always passed over in favor of the younger women. The Second Mistress, Zhuoyun (Zhuóyún, Cao Cuifen), befriends Songlian, complimenting her youth and beauty, and giving her expensive silk as a gift; she also warns her about the Third Mistress, Meishan (Méishan, He Saifei), a former opera singer who is spoiled and unable to cope with no longer being the youngest and most favored of the master's playthings. As time passes, though, Songlian learns that it is really Zhuoyun, the Second Mistress, who is not to be trusted; she is subsequently described as having the face of the Buddha but possessing the heart of a scorpion. She also has to deal with her personal maid, Yan'er (Yàn'ér, played by Kong Lin), who hates her and dreams of being married after a few brief flings with the Master.

Songlian feigns pregnancy, attempting to garner the majority of the master's time and, at the same time, attempting to become actually pregnant. Zhuoyun, however, is in league with Yan'er who finds and reveals a pair of bloodied undergarments, suggesting that Songlian had recently had her period, and discovers the pregnancy is a fraud.

Zhuoyun summons the family physician, feigning concern for Songlian's "pregnancy". Doctor Gao (Gao-yisheng, Cui Zhigang), who is secretly having an illicit affair with Third Mistress Meishan, examines Songlian and determines the pregnancy to be a sham. Infuriated, the master orders Songlian's lanterns covered with thick black canvas bags indefinitely. Blaming the sequence of events on Yan'er, Songlian reveals to the house that Yan'er's room is filled with lit red lanterns, showing that Yan'er dreams of becoming a mistress instead of a lowly servant; it is suggested earlier that Yan'er is in love with the master and has even slept with him in the Fourth Mistress' bed.

Yan'er is punished by having the lanterns burned while she kneels in the snow, watching as they smolder. In an act of defiance, Yan'er refuses to humble herself or apologize, and thus remains kneeling in the snow throughout the night until she collapses. Yan'er falls sick and ultimately dies after being taken to the hospital. One of the servants tells Songlian that her former maid died with her mistress's name on her lips. Songlian, who had briefly attended university before the passing of her father and being forced into marriage, comes to the conclusion that she is happier in solitude; she eventually sees the competition between the women as a useless endeavor, as each woman is merely a "robe" that the master may wear and discard at his discretion.

As Songlian retreats further into her solitude, she begins speaking of suicide; she reasons that dying is a better fate than being a wife in the Chen household. On her twentieth birthday, severely intoxicated and despondent over her bitter fate, Songlian inadvertently blurts out the details of the love affair between Meishan and Doctor Gao to Zhuoyun, who later catches the adulterous couple together. Following the old customs and traditions, Meishan is dragged to a lone room (also known as the room of death earlier on) on the roof of the estate and is hanged to death by the master's servants.

Songlian, already in agony due to the fruitlessness of her life, witnesses the entire episode and is emotionally traumatized. The following summer, after the Master's marriage to yet another concubine, Songlian is shown wandering the compound in her old schoolgirl clothes, appearing to have gone completely insane.

Cast

 * Gong Li as Songlian - Known as Lotus in the English version of the novel.
 * He Saifei as Meishan, the third mistress - Known as Coral in the English version of the novel.
 * Cao Cuifen as Zhuoyun, the second mistress  - Known as Cloud in the English version of the novel.
 * Kong Lin as Yan'er, Songlian's young servant - Known as Swallow in the English version of the novel.
 * Zhou Qi as housekeeper Chen Baishun
 * Jin Shuyuan (金淑媛) as Yuru, the first wife - Known as Joy in the English version of the novel.
 * Ma Jingwu as Chen Zuoqian or Master Chen
 * Cui Zhihgang as Doctor Gao
 * Chu Xiao as Feipu, the master's eldest son
 * Cao Zhengyin as Songlian's old servant
 * Ding Weimin as Songlian's mother

Soundtrack
All songs composed by Zhao Jiping.
 * 1) "Opening Credits/Prologue/Zhouyun/Lanterns"
 * 2) "First Night With Master/Alone on First Night Second Night Third Night"
 * 3) "Summer"
 * 4) "Flute Solo"
 * 5) "Record"
 * 6) "Autumn"
 * 7) "Births/The Peking Theme"
 * 8) "Pregnancy/Yan'er's Punishment"
 * 9) "Meishan Sings"
 * 10) "Young Master Returns Meishan's Punishment"
 * 11) "Realization"
 * 12) "Winter"
 * 13) "Ghost"
 * 14) "Seasons"
 * 15) "Next Summer"
 * 16) "House of Death"
 * 17) "Fifth Mistress"
 * 18) "Songlian's Madness/End Credits"

Distribution
Raise the Red Lantern has been distributed on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD by numerous different distributors, with many coming under criticism for their poor quality.

The Razor Digital Entertainment DVD release has been widely criticised. DVD Times states "Many other viewers will find this DVD release simply intolerable." DVDTown criticised the same release, giving the video quality 1 out of 10 and the audio quality 6 out of 10, summarising that "the video is a disaster". DVDFile adds to this stating "this horrible DVD is only recommended to those who love the movie so much, that they’ll put up with anything to own a Region 1 release." The translation on this version has been also widely criticised for its numerous inaccuracies. A release by Rajon Vision has also received poor commentary

ERA's first release received similar attention but the second digitally remastered edition has been more warmly received with DVD Times stating that "It's a film that really needs a Criterion edition with a new print or a full restoration, but in the absence of any likelihood of that, this Era Hong Kong edition is about as good as you could hope for." DVDBeaver broadly agrees stating "Now, this is not Criterion image quality, but it is not bad at all. It is easily the best digital representation of this film currently available." DVD Talk, though, believes that "This new version is a stunner".

A new MGM release in 2007 has also received some positive feedback.

Box office
Raise the Red Lantern has sold copyright to 35 countries worldwide. It was a big hit in Europe, with 43 copies touring in Italy, from big towns to small towns, grossing more than $3 million. France, with nine copies, grossing more than $2 million. It was released on March 13, 1992, and final grossing in the US market is $2,603,061.  Outside Asia, Raise the Red Lantern earned of $11 million for production company HK ERA International

Critical response
Described as "one of the landmark films of the 1990s" by Jonathan Crow of AllMovie, where it received five out of five, Raise the Red Lantern has been well received. James Berardinelli named it his 7th best film of the 1990s. It has a 97% rating at review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Visually thrilling and rich with emotion, Raise the Red Lantern offers an engrossing period drama anchored by an outstanding performance from Gong Li". TV Guide gave it five out of five. However, there were a small number of negative reviews: Hal Hinson of The Washington Post, for example, stated that "the story never amounts to much more than a rather tepid Chinese rendition of "The Women." The film ranked #28 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.

The film has also been praised for its artistic merit. Desson Howe of The Washington Post stated that "In purely aesthetic terms, "Raise the Red Lantern" is breathtaking" and James Berardinelli stated that "the appeal to the eye only heightens the movie's emotional power". John Hartl of Film.com described it to be "a near-perfect movie that often recalls the visual purity and intensity of silent films".

The film's popularity has also been attributed to a resurgence in Chinese tourism after the government response to the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, due to its use of exotic locations.

Raise the Red Lantern was one of the films with most appearances on 1992's year-end lists, appearing on 36 lists.

Recognition

 * Empire 100 Best Films of World Cinema – #28
 * Time Out 100 Best Chinese Mainland Films – #13
 * Included in The New York Times's list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made in 2004
 * Included in BBC's 2018 list of The 100 greatest foreign language films voted by 209 film critics from 43 countries around the world.