54. Raise the Red Lantern

Like most movies made in a language other than English -- especially ones not made in Europe -- director Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern was not widely seen on the international stage. Its rather formal structure (about 95% of the movie is set in one Chinese family’s compound, and most of the story is told via close-up shots of actress Gong Li’s face) may have taxed some audience’s expectations as well as limits when it comes to encountering alien cultures. The film even lost the Best Foreign Film Oscar to an inconsequential production (Mediterraneo) that has come to be forgotten. However, as Zhang Yimou and Gong Li’s reputations grew during the 1990s and 2000s, their movies were no longer gems to be discovered by the intrepid alone.

Raise the Red Lantern isn’t just about a woman married to a man with three other wives.  The film is also a critique of the backwards oppressiveness of traditional Chinese thinking. You could also make the extension that the young woman’s husband represents the Chinese Communist government -- meaning, Chinese authorities with a lack of sympathy toward humanity. (Zhang Yimou’s movies are routinely banned in their homeland.)  The film’s subtexts are created by the filmmakers’ expert use of mood, cramped sets to indicate psychological stifling, and sharp acting from the actresses who play the concubines.

Of course, the real reason to see Raise the Red Lantern is to witness the Zhang-Gong collaboration hit its stride. After Raise the Red Lantern came greats such as To Live, Shanghai Triad, and The Story of Qui Ju. (Yunda Eddie Feng)