Women Beware Women: Zhang Yimou’s ‘Raise The Red Lantern’

ertainly in the world of cluding such films asRed that he is more than equal to this film, women need to Sorghum (1987), Ju Dou his Hollywood counterparts in beware women, to para- (1990), Qiu Ju (1992), Shang- these matters, and is able to phrase the title of Thomas hai Triad (1995), Hero (2002), bring an unusual grace to their Middleton’s 1657 tragedy, and House of Flying Dag- execution. In Raise the Red and it is not altogether inapt gers (2004) it does not seem Lantern, though, he ensures to reference this Jacobean extravagant. Certainly this that the main events are kept work in which women behave achievement across a wide at a distance: whenever sex- treacherously towards each generic range (e.g., realist dra- ual or other violent action is at other with tragic results. ma, comedy, martial arts ad- issue, the camera refuses to However, the title of this es- venture, film noir thriller), has come closer, as if to say that say really should have gone few equals in modern cinema, this is not the film’s chief busi- on to read (clumsily): ‘Women and Raise the Red Lantern ness. The chief business lies in Beware Women, but watch (1991), a tragic drama, is one what the characters, especially out for men too’, for the of its most eloquent triumphs. the protagonist Songlian (Gong precarious situations faced Zhang Yimou’s observa- Li), will make of these events. by women in this film and the tion of human affairs in Raise

society it depicts are the re- the Red Lantern combines issue 42 sult of a traditional patriarchal passion and detachment, pre- A woman’s fate

dominance. cision and sympathy, and his SCREEN EDUCATION For nearly two decades filmmaking techniques remind t is hard to pin down the there have been good reasons us that we are a long way from period of the film exactly for considering Zhang Yimou the multiplex fare dominated I(though several commen- one of the world’s great film by Hollywood, with its current tators have named it as the directors. The word ‘master- obsessions with frantic action 1920s1 ) as it offers almost piece’ is often tossed around and special effects. Zhang has no sense of the world out- 111 brian lightly, but when it has been shown, in films such asHero side the confined setting of mcfarlane applied to a body of work in- and House of Flying Daggers, the wealthy Master’s house. The events of the plot are ‘What sort of man? Is it Cuifeng), has a daughter the breeds jealousy, tittle-tattle, not played out against larg- up to me? You always speak same age as the son of the duplicity and a sense of con- er social movements. Once of money. Why not marry a third wife, Meishan (He Cai- spiracy. They have too little Songlian arrives at Chen rich man?’ fei), a former opera singer. to do and, despite the rela- Zuoquian’s home, a ‘com- ‘Marry a rich man and Whereas Meishan appears tive luxury of their surround- pound’ of several courtyards, you’ll only be a concubine.’ bitterly to resent Songlian as ings, their situation remains colonnades and rooftop ‘Let me be a concubine. having directly supplanted ignominious. Songlian, intel- walkways, the camera nev- Isn’t that a woman’s fate?’ her, Zhuoyun seems sweet- ligent enough to have want- er moves outside its walls. In this dialogue, natured and conciliatory, but ed a university education, is This sense of confinement Songlian’s future is sealed, as the film unfolds Songlian’s bored, lonely and jealous. is important but time is not. and the film’s minimal plot perceptions of these two She finds it hard to accept Custom matters and infringe- will act out the ensuing mel- will undergo some modifica- the rigidities of the customs ment will be punished. odrama and – ultimately – tion. The fifth woman who that fence her about at eve- Since Songlian has been tragedy. matters to the plot is Yan’er ry turn in the wealthy man’s forced to leave university, we She is seen briefly on the (Kong Lin), the ill-temper- house. To assert herself she may assume that the period road with her suitcase, hav- ed and mischievous servant spits out orders to her serv- is twentieth century, though ing resisted taking the ‘se- assigned to Songlian. One ant, Yan’er (who aspires to this ceases to matter when dan’ that has been sent for of the film’s strengths is its being a wife), humiliating she enters Chen’s walls. Her her, and refuses an offer to clear differentiation among her by insisting her hair be father has died and, because carry her case. These will be these women. checked for lice. Yan’er pri- the family is then impover- virtually her last acts of self- The word ‘unfolds’ in re- vately repays her by spitting ished, her stepmother has determination. Once installed lation to the plot seems apt. on Songlian’s clothes which arranged the marriage. The as Chen’s ‘fourth mistress’ It suggests the measured she has been sent to wash. film opens on the following (the term ‘mistress’ is used in display of the narrative, so at In turn, it is easy to see exchange between Songlian, subtitles throughout to refer odds with our notions of the Songlian’s treatment of her ISSUE 42 beautiful and resentful in to the four wives), her life will forward thrust of Hollywood servant as her response to close-up, and her stepmoth- be regulated by the customs melodrama. It is not that being humiliated by the third SCREEN EDUCATION er off-screen: of many generations, cus- nothing happens but that mistress, Meishan, whose ‘Mother, stop! You’ve toms devised by men. The Zhang’s approach is to make nose is out of joint when been talking for three days. first wife, Yuru (Jin Shuyuan), us aware of what is seeth- Songlian arrives. I’ve thought it over. Alright, is elderly and has a son, ing beneath the surface while The customs that govern I’ll get married.’ Feipu (Chu Xiao), who later the latter maintains a stately the running of the compound ‘Good. To what sort of shows interest in Songlian; composure. The confinement are essentially male-ori- 112 man?’ the second, Zhuoyun (Cao in which the women live entated, though they bear Raise The Red Lantern

so heavily on the women image of beauty and a sym- who live there – and though bol of the patriarchal oppres- the Master is barely seen. siveness of the system. The Though ‘barely seen’ he nev- women’s position is entire- ertheless ensures that the ly dependent on the Mas- customs work in his favour, ter’s whim and everyone in and the film’smise-en-scène the compound knows who registers this by placing his is in favour at any given mo- shadowy shape between, ment. A servant comes to say, Songlian and the cam- give her a foot-massage, us- era, while she in such scenes ing a tinkling little gong-like is characteristically seen at instrument. This is another the rear of her apartment. His family custom, and when the despotic power over the en- Master appears, after receiv- tire household is symbolized ing off-screen congratula- by the eponymous red lan- tions on his latest marriage, terns. These are hung in the he tells her that having her courtyard of whichever wife feet in good shape conduces is to be favoured by a vis- to her overall well-being and it from the Master that night that she is then better placed and it is announced for the to ‘serve her man’. ‘Pick up whole compound, gathered that lantern’, he orders her, in doorways, to hear the pro- and she obeys impassively. nouncement. The chagrin of ‘Higher,’ he continues, ‘look

the women not singled out up. Educated girls are dif- ISSUE 42 can only be guessed at be- ferent. Undress.’ She wants hind their impassive faces. the lights out but he refus- SCREEN EDUCATION When Songlian is new to es, and the discretion of the the household she is shown filmmaking is seen in the to her apartment and serv- way the camera stays on an ants deck her courtyard with overhead shot of Songlian’s the red lanterns that signi- courtyard, and then the love- fy her current ascendancy. making takes place behind The lanterns are at once an a translucent curtain at the 113 ‘back’ of the screen. in Songlian’s quarters. At this complished Hollywood mel- length of the apartments, in The whole film is punc- point the film’s melodramat- odrama, in fact Zhang’s which the wives seem almost tuated by lantern orders, ic interests surface. Songlian treatment of his materi- incidental to the composition, and by images of the court- exposes Yan’er’s illicit cache al works towards different and this too is a way of un- yards either bare or, in the of lanterns in revenge for ends. A Hollywood film such derlining the subservience of case of the chosen wife, Yan’er’s having told Zhuoyun as Douglas Sirk’s All I Desire their situations. adorned with the lanterns, about the false pregnancy. (1953) or All That Heaven Al- giving a look of serene beau- lows (1955) might deal in var- ty to a cruel and demean- iations on themes relating to Style is ing system. ‘I’m just one of More than the oppression of women in attitude the Master’s robes. He can melodrama a patriarchally ordered so- wear it or tear it off,’ says ciety, but the effect would f these lives are spatial- Songlian bitterly, resentment vents follow swift- be different: it would in- ly constricted, they are at her position flaring. By this ly here, as distinct volve a kind of closure which Ipresented here in tem- stage she has come to un- Efrom the earlier sense stops short of tragedy, which porally circular terms. After derstand the third wife’s in- of slow-moving build-up of would find a livable way out the very brief prologue quot- terruption of her wedding conspiracy and jealousy. The of the conflicts deriving from ed above, the rest of the film night by her singing and by servant is made to kneel in women’s subjection to the moves from one summer to insisting she is unwell and the snow until she apologis- mores of their society. An- the next, with seasonal inter- that the Master must come es: she refuses, then collaps- other contrast would have titles. Actually the latter are to her. In a moving scene, es and dies. Songlian takes been with the intense melo- scarcely needed, except per- Meishan explains how jeal- too much to drink and inad- dramatic highlighting of the haps to stress the remorse- ous Zhuoyun had been when vertently reveals Meishan’s events leading up to this lessness of the seasons in they were both pregnant, infidelity with Dr Gao, and, in point, whereas Zhang, as this luxurious prison, be- how she had tried desper- a bitter irony since the Mas- noted, tends to keep us at a cause cinematographer Zhao ately to give birth first. Now ter, unlike his wives, may remove from them. Fei2 registers the changes in Meishan, who has warned visit whichever sexual part- This latter point is made lighting so precisely. The yel- her that Zhuoyun ‘has the ner he chooses, her behav- abundantly clear in the el- low glare of summer gives face of a Buddha but a scor- iour is punished by death. egance of the film’s com- way to the rain-drenched au- pion’s heart’, warns Songlian Look how Zhang renders position in which the spatial tumn and the snow of winter not to be complacent about this moment in the narrative: confinement is elaborate- in which the servant Yan’er her ascendancy: ‘You’re new a woman’s body in white is ly stated in the long shots of meets her death, and Zhao, here … but if you don’t give seen kicking and screaming courtyards and apartments. with a masterly eye for com- him a son …’ The unfinished as she is removed at night The absence of placement position, makes his long- sentence carries the threat to a sort of rooftop turret, in in any specific region of Chi- shots of the courtyards and of Songlian’s being ultimate- which, we have been told, na forces our attention on the of the snaggle of rooftops ly superseded, as, in the last women have been hanged. compound itself and on the into barometers for record- moments of the film, she is. There is an off-screen possible effects of this kind ing times of day and of year. It is this sort of advice scream of ‘Murderers’ and of narrowly constricted world Since confinement is so cen- and the pressure it enjoins the remorseful Songlian, hid- on the occupants. One of the tral a concept in this film, it that leads to the crucial plot den from their view, follows most seductive aspects of is important to note two fur- manoeuvre: Songlian’s pre- at a distance as Meishan is the film is the sheer classi- ther aspects of Zhao’s com- tended pregnancy. In re- dragged to her death. From cal elegance of its style. The position – or at least his way sponse to this news, the this moment, Songlian’s faces of the women are given of articulating Zhang’s con- lanterns are to be lit by day fate is sealed: she arrang- their due in close-ups at key cepts. First, notice how spar- and night, ‘as a symbol of es, with the help of gramo- moments, but the character- ingly the sky is glimpsed: longevity’. This doomed lie phone records and lanterns, istic shots are those which vast skyscapes might hint propels the rest of the film. a ‘haunting’ of Meishan’s take in the courtyards, some- too much at the world out- The malicious maid Yan’er quarters, before herself de- times strung with red lan- side, thus reducing the smell ISSUE 42 and the duplicitous second clining into madness as the terns, sometimes drably gray, of claustrophobia in the com- wife Zhuoyun are responsi- lanterns are lit for the coming either from above, which pound. Second, the interiors SCREEN EDUCATION ble for exposing Songlian’s of the fifth wife. By this stage seems to suggest a narrato- are so exquisitely composed situation, causing the doc- the melodrama of sexual ri- rial eye on the lives below, or as almost to look ready for tor, Gao (Cui Zhigang), to be valry and internecine conflict from the entrance to take in framing. Zhao holds his cam- sent for. When he tells the has given way to something the full space of the court- era at a remove from such Master the truth, Chen’s rage more: to tragedy in fact. yard. When the action moves vistas, and the formal beau- is heard by all as he orders While such events could inside, the most usual shots ty of the shots accentuates 114 the covering of the lanterns easily be the stuff of an ac- are those which render the the bitchy jockeying for plac- Raise The Red Lantern

es that is going on at, for in- tant) but for the more general but there are perhaps other ing of concubinage. She will stance, the lunch table where one about the indivisibili- ways of responding to this. find out the true nature of tradition requires the ladies ty of style and meaning. A These men have no need to ‘woman’s fate’ in a tradition to meet. style implies an attitude: that assert themselves in a situ- that generations of men have There is perhaps a school Zhang wants his camera- ation in which everything is honed to ensure their com- of thought which would hold man to achieve the effects ordered as they wish. Cus- fort and easy dominance. it a fault in a film for style to he does is a way of drawing tom, so strongly insisted on, There is more to the film than be so obvious an element. It the viewer’s attention to the invariably favours the men; this, but that idea, articulat- is impossible, for me anyway, social and psychological pat- the traditions are in place ed with the cool intelligence not to be moved by the ele- terns at the heart of the film. for their gratification; and a and passion on display here, gance and eloquence of the There has been some woman who transgresses is enough to make it memo- compositions here, by the criticism of the way this ap- in such matters will be pun- rable – and valuable. • willingness to hold the cam- proach drains the melo- ished. Meishan is dragged to era still on the understand- dramatic events of their her death; Yan’er dies from Endnotes ing that we will want simply potential, that the physi- exposure in the snow; and 1 and the jacket of the to watch and listen, and that cal distancing of the camera Songlian goes mad. There video version also says the custom-constrained for- from, say, Meishan’s vio- is no scope in this place for ‘China 1920s’. malities of the lives lived here lent removal from her apart- women to do other than con- 2 Zhao Fei has since will be better served by such ment to the tower where she form to the male-orientated worked in the West stylistic decisions than they will be killed is too restrained traditions. and has shot several of would by, say, the more usu- for the material. One review- How ‘true’ a picture Woody Allen’s films, in- al editing rhythms that might er, while admiring Zhang’s Raise the Red Lantern offers cluding Small Time be used to render relation- ‘monumental approach’ to of aspects of Chinese socie- Crooks. ships. The contemporary the traditions of the house, ty at a certain time I have no 3 raymond Younis, ‘Raise reviewer who wrote the fol- and to the ‘symmetry’ of the way of knowing. One com- the Red Lantern’, Cinema lowing seems to me to have seasons, believes that ‘it sits mentator on Zhang’s films Papers, No. 90, October grasped the film’s intentions, uncomfortably with the in- notes that he ‘pays scant at- 1992, p.51. or at least its achievements, creasing flurries of narra- tention to the historical spe- 4 verina Glaessner, ‘Raise in this matter: tive revelation’.4 This is a cificity of the story’ but is in the Red Lantern’, Sight Long, lingering, stat- point of view worth consider- no doubt of the film’s indict- and Sound, February ic shots in real time create a ing, though I must say I find ment of patriarchy as a prin- 1992, p.42. rhythm that is quite beguiling the extreme discretion of the ciple of social organization. 5 yanmei Wei, ‘Music and and heighten the sense that visual style heightens, rath- This same writer believes Femininity in Zhang Yi- here is a world which is self- er than slackens, awareness that this indictment is ‘not mou’s Family Melodra- enclosed, which functions of the dangerous tensions at delivered mainly with words, ma’, CIneAction, No. 42, according to its own laws work. but rather through metic- p.20 (undated, but rough- and codes, and is not subject The fact that the male ulously designed setting, ly 1996). to conventional ideas of jus- characters – the Master, his lighting, action and music’.5 tice or justification.3 son by the first wife, the doc- The opening moments with It is worth looking at that tor with whom the third wife the great Gong Li in resent- sentence carefully, not just has, fatally for her, been hav- ful, stoic, intractable close- for the particular point it is ing a liaison – remain no up foreshadow the rest of making about this film (and more than shadowy sketches the film. ‘Isn’t that a wom- that point is certainly impor- may be seen as a deficiency, an’s fate?’ she asks, speak-

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