Raise the Red Lantern
                Reviewed by Linda Lopez McAlister
            For The Women's Show, WMNF-FM, Tampa, FL

    A "must see" film for feminists and anyone else who loves
filmmaking that combines visual beauty, powerful emotions, and
strong political convictions has arrived in Tampa.  The film is
"Raise the Red Lantern," the third feature directed by Chinese
filmmaker Zhang Yimou, and the second one to be nominated for an
Academy Award for the best foreign film (the first was last year's
"Ju Dou.")

   We hardly think of the People's Republic of China as a place
likely to produce feminist films, yet this remarkable achievement,
filmed in China by members of what's known as the "fifth
generation" of Chinese filmmakers, certainly qualifies in my book
as a feminist work.  It is a devastating cinematic denunciation of
patriarchal traditions and ways of thinking rigidified over
centuries of repetition.  The film, set in the 1920s must strike
close to home; it has been banned in China, not because the life it
portrays still exists there--it doesn't--but, according to the
film's director, because the ways of thinking that produce such
traditions are still alive and well in China (and elsewhere, I
might add).

    The film, adapted from the novel "Wives and Concubines" by Su
Tong, is the story of a young woman, Songlian, who has tasted the
possibility of freedom from the old ways, if only fleetingly.  For
six months she attended the university and clearly wanted to
continue.  But as the film begins, her father has died and her
stepmother has browbeaten her into agreeing to marry; her pain at
this decision is palpable.  She is sent to be the Fourth Wife of an
aging wealthy man whose household is in a lavish ancient castle and
is run according to rules as ancient and unyielding as the cold
grey stone of the house.  Each of the four wives has her own suite
of rooms, courtyard and servant; each night the master chooses one
wife to stay with and has a brilliant red lantern lit outside her
door.  The chosen wife receives special treatment and privileges--a
custom guaranteed to produce rivalry and ill will among the wives
vying for the "honor" of serving their husband and the crumbs of
power that come with it such as getting to choose the next day's
menu.

    Songlian submits to this rigidly controlled life quietly but
despairingly. She is treated with contempt by Wife Three, a former
opera star, and indifference by Wife One.  Only Wife Two seems
friendly and helpful, but that turns out to be merely a slightly
more subtle strategy in the game of becoming the most favored wife.
Drawn into the competition, Songlian dreams up a plan that will
lead to her becoming the most powerful of the wives, but she is
betrayed by her jealous servant girl and disgraced.  As a mark of
her degradation all of the red lanterns in her compound are
ceremoniously covered with ominous black sheaths.  Taking revenge
on her servant leads to even greater pain which she drowns in drink
and her drunken words lead to further unbearable tragedy as the
ancient customs are played out.  Unable to endure any longer in
this prison, Songlian breaks free for one glorious subversive
moment when she tears the black covers from the lanterns and sets
them glowing and destroys the order and composure of the household,
however briefly, before meeting the tragic fate that must befall
any intelligent woman who has tasted freedom and is then forced to
suffer in bondage.

   It's hard to say enough good things about the actresses who play
the wives, especially Gong Li as Songlian.  Even more impressive is
the cinematography and the way that Zhang Yimou uses the building
in which the tragedy plays itself out almost as if it were another
character in the drama.  And, indeed it is--a metaphor for
patriarchy, a metaphor for China and the stolidness and that makes
meaningful change on every level so difficult and so necessary.

   Do go see "Raise the Red Lantern" at the Tampa Theater this week.
It is a remarkable film achievement by a truly talented ensemble of
filmmakers.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women
and Film.