More than half a year ago, the TV series "Knowing whether it should be green, fat, red and thin" hit the air and became a popular "house fighting drama". I am used to watching "Gong Dou Opera", and then watch "Zhai Dou Opera", although the two have the same purpose, but "Zhai Dou Opera" is also a different style in a smaller "pattern".
"Do you know whether it should be green, fat, red and thin" is good-looking, and the costumes, scenes, props, etc. are also well-made. It can be regarded as a well-made work. However, the bloody plot and slightly facialized character settings make it still far from a classic. If I want to talk about the classic work of "House Fighting Opera", I think the first is "High Red Lanterns" (1991) directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li.
More than ten years ago, I watched "Raise the Red Lantern" for the first time. What I watched was the story. After more than ten years, I watched it again, and it was Kuang Wei.
As a former literature lover, I had read Su Tong's original novel "Groups of Wives and Concubines" before reading "Raise the Red Lantern" for the first time.
Before falling in love, part of my understanding of women came from Su Tong's novels. Although Su Tong is a male writer, when he writes "female novels", his brushstrokes are very gentle and graceful. I can almost feel his "pity for fragrance and jade".
Whether it is "Wives and Concubines" or "Red Pink", Su Tong has shown empathy. While describing their tragic fate, he seems to be comforting their insulted and damaged bodies and minds. In China, where machismo has a long history, Su Tong's attitude in telling women's stories is a bit touching.
In terms of character setting and storyline, Zhang Yimou's adaptation of "The Wives and Concubines" is not large, and is roughly copied as it is. However, Su Tong's novel has a certain southern color or charm, while Zhang Yimou moved the background of the story to the north - the large mansion is obviously a northern building. Zhang Yimou has been a master of visual art and plastic arts since his debut. The imagery he showed in "Raise the Red Lantern" is also not provided by the novel. Without this part, the film would hardly become a classic.
Simply put, "The Big Red Lanterns" tells the story of "polygamy" in a feudal family. Generally speaking, the eldest wife comes from the right family, and the aunt comes from the lower door family. The status of concubines is inherently inferior, and whether they are favored by the master (male host) determines their status in the family.
In the Chen family in "The Big Red Lantern", the eldest wife basically ruled by inaction and devoted herself to the Buddha. This is a realm, and it is also helpless. The main people fighting in the mansion were three concubines. The rationality of the existence of concubines is largely derived from the need to "pass down the lineage". Therefore, giving birth (especially having a son) has become the nirvana of competing for favor. In addition, each has to have "skills". In the film, Zhuo Yun (the second wife)'s "stunt" is to wait for people (massage), Mei Shan (the third wife)'s "stunt" is "one cry, two troubles, three hangs", Song Lian (fourth wife) "skill" " is "freshness".
Zhuo Yun came from a low background, and in the eyes of the crowd, he has long practiced the vicious kung fu of "a bodhisattva face and a snake scorpion heart". Mei Shan used to be a Hong Ling, and she was somewhat helpless to commit herself to being a concubine. In addition to competing for favor, she is still full of energy and affectionate, but her heart is not bad. Due to family changes, Songlian dropped out of university and married into a concubine of a wealthy family. The battle between them, as the so-called "clear guns are easy to block, dark arrows are difficult to guard against", the end has already been settled.
As the mastermind of the family, Chen Zuoqian never "appeared frontally" in the film, either from the back, from the side, or from the perspective. He seems to be a hidden existence, but he is the one who dominates everything. Weakening his "existence" seems to be giving the "stage" to women, but the fact is exactly the opposite. His "invisible existence" aggravates the oppressive atmosphere of the women's world in a male-dominated society - he "sees the dragon" There is no end in sight." However, everyone's existence is living in his shadow. I have to say that Zhang Yimou's "setting" for Chen Zuoqian is really wonderful!
On the night of the "wedding", Chen Zuoqian looked at Song Lian and said:
"Raise the lamp higher,
face up,
Foreign students are different!
All right, take off your clothes and go to bed. "
Songlian became the fourth wife because of her "special status" - a foreign student. Master Chen wanted something different! A living woman, in the eyes of Master Chen, is just a new dish.
Yes, in Chen Mansion, the concubine is already a high-ranking person - the life ideal of the maid Yan'er is to become a concubine, but they are still not human. If they don't regard themselves as human beings, they can live clearly, such as Zhuo Yun. The tragedy of Mei Shan and Song Lian is that they still want to be "people".
In the early morning, in the corridor upstairs, Mei Shan and Song Lian had a "heart talk".
Mei Shan said:
"What's good or not,
It was supposed to be a play.
Well done play can deceive others,
If you don't do well, you can only lie to yourself.
When you can't even deceive yourself,
That can only be deceiving. "
Songlian said:
"Humans and ghosts are one breath away.
People are ghosts, and ghosts are people. "
Songlian said:
"I just don't understand,
In this courtyard, what do people give?
Like a dog, like a cat, like a rat,
Like everything, just not like people. "
Lu Xun wrote in Diary of a Madman:
"I opened the history and checked it. This history has no chronology. The words 'benevolence, righteousness and morality' are written on each page. I couldn't sleep horizontally and vertically. I read it carefully in the middle of the night, and then I could see the words between the words. , the whole book is written with two words 'cannibalism'!"
Zhang Yimou used his strong visual imagery to film the history of "cannibalism" in "The Big Red Lantern"!
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