DVD/150: DA HONG DENGLONG GAOGAO GUA (RAISE THE RED LANTERN) (Zhang Yimou, 1991)

Zhang Yimou and his muse Gong Li's third masterpiece DA HONG DENGLONG GAOGAO GUA is my favourite: sumptious, thrilling and haunting.

China, 1920: nineteen year-old Songlian has to leave university when her beloved father dies and her stepmother marries her off to a rich man.

At her husband's labyrinthine compound she discovers her marriage follows his ancestor's strict rules. 

Songlian is his fourth wife: the first, Yuru, is older and used to being overlooked but is the mother of the heir, the second wife Zhuoyun is ingratiatingly friendly and warns Songlian about the third wife Meishan, a former Chinese Opera singer seemingly jealous of Songlian for being the new wife.

Every night the Master chooses his wife for the night meaning the wife's room is festooned with red lanterns, they are given foot massages and can choose the day's food.

As Songlian joins the wives' power struggle, treachery erupts...

Shelf or charity shop?  The red lanterns are lit in my plastic DVD storage box. A film of immense power helped immeasureably by Zhao Fei's luminous cinematography.  Although the script was officially sanctioned, the completed film was initially banned in China.  Although Zhang denied it the film's harsh look at the patriarchal rule within the house can be read as a political critique.  But this does not detract from Zhang's marvellous story-telling and by keeping us focussed on the dangerous power-play between the three main wives, we slowly become gripped by the story which was based on a novel by Su Tong.  There are marvellous performances from He Saifei as Meishan, the third wife who initially seems to be Songlian's enemy and Cao Cuifen as Zhuoyun, the second wife with "the face of the Buddha and the heart of a scorpion" as well as memorable support from Kong Lin as Yan'er, Songlian's insolent maid. But the film remains a tribute to the glowing Gong Li as Songlian, at times rivalling Louise Brooks as one of the great unknowable screen presences. 

DVD/150: JU DOU (Zhang Yimou / Yang Fengliang, 1990)

Three years after the acclaim for his debut RED SORGHUM, Zhang Yimou struck gold again with JU DOU, the first Chinese film nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award.

The film glows with the performances from Yimou's muse Gong Li as Ju Dou and Li Baotian as Tianqing.

In 1920s rural China, Tianqing discovers his cruel adoptive uncle Jinshan, owner of a silk dyeing shop, has bought a new young wife Ju Dou, who he abuses.

Tianqing lusts over Ju Dou but when he realizes the extent of her bruises, his lust turns to protective love.

Their love results in a baby boy.  Jinshan suffers a stroke, leaving him paralyzed, and Ju Dou joyfully tells him that Tianqing is the father.  

Jinshan attempts to drown toddler Tianbai but is exultant when the boy calls him 'father'. Jinshan's later drowns in a dye vat.

Tianbai grows up hating his parents...

 

 

Shelf or charity shop?  Living in my dvd plastic storage box, Zhang Yimou's Chinese film noir-like tale of love and death is a keeper.  Zhang's previous career as a cinematographer makes the film look glorious - Ju Dou and Tianqing's love grows between the towering drying rolls of coloured silks hanging over the courtyard which contrasts with the gloomy darkness of the interiors. Li Wei is an excellent villain as Jinshan and there is an arresting performance by Zheng Ji'an as the sullen, vengeful Tianbai but the film belongs to Li Baotian as Tianqing and the glorious Gong Li - it is remarkable that this was only three years after her first film as she is wonderfully charismatic as the bruised, loving, haunted Je Dou.  Despite it's international success, JU DOU was banned in China for a while.

DVD/150: HONG GAO LIANG (RED SORGHUM) (Zhang Yimou, 1987)

Former cinematographer Zhang Yimou burst onto the international film scene when his directorial debut RED SORGHUM won the Best Film award at the Berlin Film Festival, putting him in the vanguard of China's "Fifth Generation" directors.

It was also the debut of Gong Li, a 22 year-old student of Beijing's Central Academy of Drama.  Her luminous performance started an eight-year personal and professional relationship with Zhang resulting in six more acclaimed films.

An unseen man remembers his grand-parents: in remote East China during the 1930s, young Jiu'er is sold by her parents to an elderly winery-owner.  Although the head worker saves her from a bandit attack, he later rapes her himself.

When her husband disappears, presumed murdered, she now owns the winery which she turns into a successful collective with the head worker.

The Japanese invade and the workers' resistance culminates in the fields of Sorghum.

Shelf or charity shop?  Living in my dvd plastic storage box, Zhang Yimou's sparse drama is a definite keeper.  Zhang's years as a cinematographer show in the lustrous look of the film: the waving green fields of Sorghum illuminated by stark sunshine, the vivid reds of the splashing wine and spilled blood and the stark landscape surrounding the winery.  Based on Mo Yan's novel, Zhang lets his visuals tell the story but is helped by the commited performances of Jiang Wen as the un-named head worker and Teng Rujun as the dedicated worker Luohan.  But Gong Li's glorious debut gives the film an added warmth and vibrancy as Jiu'er, the first of her memorable collection of Zhang heroines.

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