Review of “Raise the Red Lantern”

Review of “Raise(rāz) the Red Lantern(ˈlantərn)”

By Roger Ebert

The Chinese film “Raise the Red Lantern” (1991), like the Japanese film “Woman in the Dunes(d(y)o͞on)” (1960), is about sexual(ˈsekSHo͞oəl) enslavement(enˈslāvmənt). In both films, the protagonist(prōˈtaɡənəst, prəˈtaɡənəst) enters a closed system from which there is no escape, and life is ruled by long-established “customs.” In the Japanese film, a woman captures a man, who spends the night in her home at the bottom of a hole in the desert(ˈdezərt) and finds in the morning that the escape ladder(ˈladər) has been removed. In the Chinese film, a 19-year-old college student drops out of school after her father dies; when her stepmother is unwilling to support her, she agrees to become the concubine(ˈkäNGkyəˌbīn) of a rich man–his “Fourth Mistress(ˈmistris).” All four concubines live in a house they are not allowed to leave.

It’s difficult to say how realistic either film is intended to be.

I have always read “Woman in the Dunes” as a parable(ˈparəbəl), although evidence exists that people do, or did, live in such desert shelters(ˈSHeltər). Zhang Yimou’s “Raise the Red Lantern” is set in China in 1920, when concubines were commonplace, but I suspect the conditions of this particular house, long the residence(ˈrez(ə)dəns,ˈrezəˌdens) of the wealthy(ˈwelTHē) Chen family, are unique.

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https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-raise-the-red-lantern-1990