Yimou Zhang "Raise the Red Lantern" Gong Li 1991 DVD

Publisher: ERA Home Entertainment

In 1991, famed director Zhang Yimou (To Live, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers) teamed up with his longtime leading lady Gong Li (Ju Dou, 2046, and Memoirs of a Geisha) to make his award-winning, critically acclaimed masterpiece Raise the Red Lantern. The gorgeous Gong Li portrays Song Lian, the soon-to-be fourth wife of a rich man known only as "The Master" (Ma Jing Wu). Educated, but forced to quit school due to her father's death, Song Lian chooses to marry a wealthy landowner against her stepmother's warnings. Quickly, her universe is reduced to the confines of a sheltered, dismal home, where her contact with others is limited only to her husband, his family, and her servants, one of whom (played by Kong Lin) jealously hatches plots against her new mistress.
Traditionally, the master lights lanterns outside the compound of the wife he wishes to spend the night with, and since Song Lian is the latest addition to the fold, it seems natural that the master would desire to spend most of his time with his beautiful new bride. However, during their first evening as a couple, the master is forced to rush away to console his third wife (He Caife), and from that moment onward, a wicked game of treachery and manipulation ensues among the wives as each vies for the master's attentions, no matter what the cost. Although Song Lian is not necessarily desirous of her husband, she soon comes to understand that her worth as a woman is measured directly against how well she is esteemed by the master!

Although strong and determined, can Song Lian successfully negotiate this treacherous terrain? Or will she be destroyed by it? Tinged with political subtext, the film provides viewers with a brutal glimpse into the social realities of the early part of the twentieth century. Beautifully shot, Raise the Red Lantern is a poignant, visually stunning motion picture that more than demonstrates the talents of director Zhang Yimou and his then-muse, Gong Li

Director : Yimou Zhang

Cast : Gong Li | Ma Jing-Wu | He Sai-Fai | Cao Cui-Fen | Zhou Qi | Kong Lin | Jin Shu-Yuan