Dragonknight’s review published on Letterboxd:
Film #16 of Project 90
” If you act well, you can fool other people; if you do it badly, you can only fool yourself.”
Zhang Yimou turns his lens toward a world where the happiness and sadness of women rely on the way men act, feel and think, but instead of putting one of those mighty men at the center of his film he bravely focuses on those unfortunate women and calmly shows us the inevitable tragedy of their life. Raise the Red Lantern is the sorrowful story of a group of women’s lives who are trapped in a life build of unfulfilled wishes, unspoken desires, jealousy, failure, humiliation and spoiled prides.
Yimou’s main success is that without getting too sentimental or too meddlesome he is able to give us some believable female characters whose behaviors at first may seem odd but as we look more carefully we realize that we would have done the same thing if we were in the same situation, this sympathy with characters is what makes Raise the Red Lantern such a striking experience. And even more importantly the film is trying to give us a fresh idea of how various women live and react to the things that happen to them in an extremely traditional society where everything is based on ancient rules.
In Songlian we see a young girl whose initial disappointment has turned into an uncontrollable desire to destroy everything and as we get closer to the story’s end we see a more frustrated character who is getting closer and closer to his tragic fate. In Meishan we see a talented young woman full of the passion of life whose inner enthusiasm is getting suppressed by his “husband”, isn't it obvious that she can’t tolerate her current life? Isn't it obvious that one day she will rebel against all these customs? Isn't it obvious her aflame heart will be the victim of prejudice and stubbornness?
As much as it is a movie about characters, Raise the Red Lantern is also a movie of captivating images, through his numerous beautiful pictures Yimou is able to create a visually marvelous experience. It is ironic that in most scenes the only color comes from the lanterns which highlights the importance of Red Lanterns in the life of characters. The whole castle with its grey walls, long corridors and deadly silence is pictured like a prison, it sucks all the passion inside its poor inhabitants and replaces life with death. This visual elements add another dimension to the film and make it even more impressive.
This is one of those films that will not be forgotten easily, it is a heartbreaking tale that manages to build some sympathetic characters and Zhang Yimou’s movie is the touching portrayal their tragic destinies. Simple, cold and quite painful.