Zhang Yimou and His Girls

Zhang Yimou is internationally the most well known of a renowned group of modern Chinese directors called the Fifth Generation. The group gets its name from the order in which it graduated from the Beijing Film Academy (Class of 1982). Zhang's is a history laden with the greatest of hardships and the highest of successes. A citation from a recent interview with Bright Lights touches briefly upon the lingering angst of his past:

"I think my experience represents a wealth of assets for my life and my work. During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, I went from age sixteen to age twenty-six. I experienced a lot of chaotic situations, and I saw a lot of terrible, tragic things happening around me. From all that I got a deep understanding of human life, of the human heart or spirit — of human society, really — and I think that it benefits me today: in my work, in my thinking, and even in how I deal with personal problems.

The Cultural Revolution was a very special period of Chinese history, unique in the world. For many years, I wanted to make movies about that period — to discuss the suffering and to talk about fate and human relationships in a world that people couldn't control and which was very hostile. In today's political climate, such a project is impossible — as To Live (1994) has proved, at least in my native country — so I'll just have to wait."

The film we prepared for today, Raise the Red Lantern (1991), is a modern International classic based on Ni Zhen's 1990 novel, Wives and Concubines. It represents nicely two of the most salient characteristics of Zhang's cinematic art: (1) stunning visual beauty, and (2) the centrality of female protagonists. The film tells the story of a young woman, Songlian, who becomes the fourth concubine in a powerful family during the Warlord Era (1916-28CE). She is warmly received only to become slowly entangled in the poisonous machinations of the household. Her position is ultimately compromised and the trauma she is forced to endure changes her forever. The screenplay was approved initially by Chinese censors but later banned for rumors that it doubled as a veiled allegory of an oppressive communist China.

Materials:
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

Questions:
(1) How is the feudal institution of polygamy portrayed in the film?
(2) How do women exercise power in a system where they are often made politically powerless?
(3) How does color contribute to the interpretive force of the film?

Secondary references
*Cardullo, Bert. "Beyond the Fifth Generation: An Interview with Zhang Yimou" Bright Lights Film Journal 58 (2007 Nov).
Chow, Rey. "Not One Less: The Fable of a Migration" Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes. Ed. Chris Berry. London: British Film Institute, 2003. 144-51.
*Levitin, Jacqueline. "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of the Flying Daggers: Interpreting Gender Thematics in the Contemporary Swordplay Film-A View from the West" Asian Cinema 17.1 (2006 Spring-Summer): 166-82.
*Huang, Yiju. "Weaving a Dark Parody: A Psychoanalytical Reading of Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower" Film International 6.2 (2008): 41-51.
*Lan, Feng:. "Zhang Yimou's Hero: Reclaiming the Martial Arts Film for 'All under Heaven'" Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 20.1 (2008 Spring): 1-43.
*Beus, Yifen: "The Road to Modernity: Urban and Rural Scenes in Zhang Yimou's The Story of Qiu Ju, Not One Less, and The Road Home" Representing the Rural: Space, Place, and Identity in Films about the Land. Ed. Catherine Fowler. MI: Wayne State UP, 2006. 276-91.
*Li, David Leiwei: "Capturing China in Globalization: The Dialectic of Autonomy and Dependency in Zhang Yimou's Cinema" Texas Studies in Literature and Language 49.3 (2007 Fall): 293-317.