Red Lantern and Golden Armor

Ayden 2022-03-20 09:02:55

Yesterday I re-watched Zhang Yimou's 'The Red Lanterns Are Hanging High' in 1991.
I can't help but sigh for 'Golden Armor', which is now being released hotly.

Looking at the whole film of 'Red Lantern', I feel that the color of the picture is heart-burning when it is red, and it is desolate when it is cold.
Especially near the end of the film, when the fourth wife finds the body of the third wife who was forcibly executed in the
snow, the dazzling white in the snow and the blue cheongsam on Gong Li's body form a sharp contrast with the thick orange-red layout of the wives' house.
The colors in the film directly represent the ups and downs of the characters' status in the film.

Gong Li's immature acting skills in those days, or a kind of lucky young feeling, played a college student who had just dropped out of high school but was dazed, fearless but out of control.
In the film, the intrigues of the women in the gloomy and lonely mansion are unavoidable and regrettable.
It is interesting that these women are complaining about the red lantern hanging in front of her door, and they
are also being scorched by the dispute over land rights. Desires control the fate that no longer belongs to them.
It's like an imprisoned water tower, when people come in, it's hard to get out.
Even if you want to go out at that time, materially and spiritually will no longer allow it.

At the beginning of the chapter, I saw the name of the film's producer and 'Hou Hsiao-hsien'.
Later, after watching the film carefully, I found that the scene of 'Red Lantern' in the house does have his style of filming.

The color of the interior is red and orange,
the space is tight and suffocating,
the scene of the family sitting around the dining table to eat and talk and his
several scenes in 'Sad City', 'Flowers on the Sea' and the new film 'Beautiful Times' All have the same.

Come to think of it, I have missed the 'Golden Armor in the whole city' this year, and I won't be able to do it next year.
Because the 'red lantern' is still hanging high, lit, burning.

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Extended Reading
  • Archibald 2022-03-23 09:03:16

    Zhang Yimou's best work, an excellent work that still has a classical temperament, summer, autumn, winter, and summer alone lacking in spring, a good year of auspicious snow. The feudal society is broken through the ritualistic behavior of lighting and extinguishing the lights. The bright red color on the screen is an exaggerated metaphor of the times, just as the door is always open to welcome, the silk curtain glimpses the hazy temptation, and the echo listens carefully to the hoarse cry. Symmetrical composition with a smooth transition from left to right, and the final cut mirror is simply heart-wrenching and shuddering!

  • Tiffany 2022-03-24 09:03:36

    5+ is too powerful... Who would have thought that a person who is so good at using up, so good at composition, and so understanding of the logic of power will eventually be captured and alienated by power... The stylization of rituals is actually not new, but the routine of rituals is One effort, Zhang Yimou did it, if he can continue in this way, he may become China's Ozu! The face of male power is completely absent in the whole film. On the one hand, it shows that the camera is aimed at the fate of women, and on the other hand, it is extended to obtain a more general face. In this film, the typical narrative style of Chinese films can still be seen: it is not reversal, but revealing. The characters have not changed, but the way of intervening in the environment has changed. The use of sound is beautiful and skillful, and the blending at the end is terrifying. Top ten national films!

Raise the Red Lantern quotes

  • Yan'er: Who are you?

    Housekeeper: Fourth mistress, please come inside.

    Yan'er: [losing her cool] So you're the fourth mistress!

    [Yan'er rudely pulls the water bowl away from Songlian and puts clothes in it]

    Songlian: Yes! I am the fourth mistress. Bring my suitcase inside please.

  • Songlian: I'm just one of the Master's robes. He can wear it or he can take it off.