pleiades

Raise the Red Lantern

❝I'm just one of the Master's robes. He can wear it or he can take it off.❞ • ───── ⋅☾✵☽⋅ ───── • A hauntingly beautiful film set in 1920s warlord China that may not have tons of dialogue but speaks volumes regardless. Red lanterns are usually a symbol of hope and light, and as the Master says in the film, longevity. The colour red is typically associated with blood, and especially the cases of Songlian and the other mistresses it represents birth and death, two events that bring fear within their household. When Songlian is told to raise the lantern, it symbolises the death of her old self, the student, and the birth of her new life as a wife. Lanterns are lit in the houses of favoured wives, and shows how these women's hopes are reliant on the whims of a man. Because of him, they turn against each other. The cinematography was gorgeous throughout the film, and it was used cleverly to show how Songlian was physically trapped in the house until Meishan's death. Initially her house is bright as the lanterns are lit, but as time passes it becomes dark and drab as she is betrayed time and time again and is thoroughly entangled in the webs of deception around her. It is only during Meishan's death that we see other buildings and trees for the first time; it is the first hint at freedom, but Songlian is blinded by the snow, blinded by her isolation and emotional stagnation to reach for it. Afterwards, while the rest of her household assume she is descending into madness, she has instead learned the truth about the house and its master. Songlian becomes Meishan's ghost and saves herself from further torture at the hands of Zhuoyun and the master. Gong Li was perfect as Songlian: she didn't depend on dialogue to convey the character but used her expressions and movements to give a very stirring performance. Her elegance and poise juxtaposed the startling moments of violent emotion that became more frequent as the film progressed; the longer her lanterns stayed covered, the more her hope drained away. On the whole, this was a stunning experience and I will be watching more of Gong Li and Zhang Yimou's collaborations.

DystopiaEnjoyer

Raise the Red Lantern

as a child of eastern asia, i grew up constantly hearing, and at times witnessing, stories of the deadly misogyny encoded in old society and its lingering impacts in modern times. Yet, despite having thought that i have grown used to this incessant issue, i still found myself suffocated, trembling in fear, and emotionally exhausted sitting through the 2-hour film. Raise the Red Lantern was a phenomenal experience, and as i believe, is one of most brutally realistic and haunting cinematic depictions of the obscene customs and ideologies rooted within bygone communities. This is real terror.