Rocks that Move

#2: RAISE THE RED LANTERN (1991)
directed by Yimou Zhang
starring Gong Li, Caifei He, Cuifen Cao, Lin Kong

"Our lives are plays. We fool others when we play well. We can fool no one but ourselves when we play poorly. When we can't even fool ourselves, we only fool the ghosts."

Before Yimou Zhang got into the gorgeously filmed (and sometimes poorly thought out) flying martial arts movies, Zhang was the director of some of the most beautiful dramas of the late eighties and early nineties. "Raise the Red Lantern" is his best. It is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen, despite having a very small and limited setting, and the story is poetic and captures the essence of human nature. The DVD, however, is awful. I waited for a decade for it to be released, and when it was, it was the most poor quality of any DVD I have seen. It looks like someone went into a cheap, second-run theater with a camcorder to copy it, and the subtitles seem like they were written by someone who, frankly, did not know English very well. I am bitterly disappointed, and yet, the film is so good that by the time it got going, I had forgotten all about it... except for the occassional humorous errors in the subtitles. Despite this, obviously I love film, or it would not be #2 on my list.

The film starts simply. We see the main character's face, and that is all. Songlian (Gong Li) is a university-educated young woman of 19 years of age, and her stepmother is practically begging her to become the concubine of a rich man. "Let me be a concubine," she replies as the tears begin to flow down here determined face, "Isn't that the fate of a woman?" Right away, we know we are in a world that is much different than ours. Songlian has a choice... but that choice is fraught with complexity in a patriarchal pre-WWII China. Songlian is a modern woman, however, and we see her walk up to the massive home of her new master with a suitcase, looking little different than a college student stepping onto campus for the first time. Here she will be known as "fourth mistress," and little by her name. She is objectified. Her identity is to be crushed, as is evident later in the film when her master burns her father's flute, because his jealous pride fears it may have been a gift from a boy in school. She is only there for the master's pleasure. This is the least of her problems.

"Raise the Red Lantern" is a story of rivalry, tradition, and political maneuvering. Rules, rules, rules. There is so much to be learned to participate in this game of power and destiny. We soon meet the first three mistresses. Yuru (First Mistress) is the oldest and first in charge, though she gets little attention from the master now that she is old and has already bore him a son. Yuru is quiet and conservative, and very serious. Zhouyan (Second Mistress), on the other hand, is friendly, informal, and outgoing. The second oldest, she quickly befriends Songlian and kindly shows her the ropes. Then there is Meishan (Third Mistress), a former opera star with an attitude, and the current favorite of the master. She is cold and mean, but very beautiful, and has the prestige of also bearing a son for the master. She coldly insults Songlian when they first meet, and the two women quickly become rivals. Here is where the red lanterns come into play. Every night the red lanterns are put up outside one of the mistresses' rooms, and she is chosen as the one that the master will spend the night with. At first Songlian does not care, but she soon learns that power and respect come with the master's approval, and the way the servants and other mistresses treat you is dependent on your success. The first night that Songlian is there, Meishan fakes being sick to get the master away from her. The battle of wits is on, later escalated when Songlian learns Meishan's hidden secret.

Complicating Songlian's life is her servant, Yan'er, a young woman she hits it off badly with from the beginning. Yan'er has the master's affection, but she is a lowly servant and will never be more than this. Thus she resents Songlian and dreams of being a mistress herself, while spitting in Songlian's clothes and resisting her every command. Songlian, in return, is cruel to her. When her flute disappears, she ransacks Yan'er's room, only to find a voodoo doll with her name on it. Yan'er cannot read or write, however, so how did her name get on the doll? Yan'er is a spy for one of the other mistresses, but which one? The answer is more obvious than she first realizes. When Songlian finally tries her hand at playing the political game, she fakes being pregnant to get the master to spend more time with her, the plan being that she will get pregnant for real when he is with her. She is caught, however, when the family doctor makes a special call on her and finds out her secret. Songlian soon learns who is responsible. A complex web of intrigue is cast, and tradition soon collides with revenge and tragedy.

"Raise the Red Lantern" is beautifully filmed. After the first shot of the film, we never leave the estate, but the beauty of such a small area is accentuated, as is the haunting solitude of its ancient walls. The movie is a ghost story without ghosts. The ghost is the past. The ghost is tradition. It is ironic that the Chinese government initially banned this film under its moral code, because the film attacks and trashes the old regime and the ancient traditions that the Republic sought to overthrow. On the other hand, it promotes the value of an individual, especially a woman. Zhang teaches us the consequences of losing our personal identity, and the foolishness of selfish paternalism. Perhaps this is why the government feared its message. Songlian is a modern woman living in an ancient world, and that ancient world drives her to the brink of madness. Yet it easily could be interpreted as an attack on any authoritarian government, including the current one. The movie is already a magnificent work of art. This added political symbolism gives it that extra depth catapults it toward the top of my list. I love it.