"High Red Lanterns" is a film directed by my country's fifth-generation director Zhang Yimou. The film is adapted from Su Tong's novel "Groups of Wife and Concubines". The story of Chen's mansion and his wives and jealousy and finally going crazy. In this film, Zhang Yimou gives full play to the creative characteristics of the fifth generation of Chinese directors, that is, image aesthetics. Zhang Yimou expresses the persecution of women by the feudal ethics system through various audio-visual elements such as color, composition, and sound effects.
Zhang Yimou's bold use of color is the main feature of his films. In "High Red Lanterns", Zhang Yimou mainly used the three colors of red, white and black to express the destruction of women by the feudal system. The first is red. In traditional Chinese culture, red means auspiciousness and joy, so on the wedding night of Song Lian and the master, red shrouded the whole room. But at the same time, red also symbolizes depression and bondage. The red color on the wedding night has bound Song Lian to the compound. The third meaning of red is power and desire. In the film, whichever house lights up the lamp, you can beat her feet and order food, and when Song Lian beat her feet for the second time, her cheeks were mapped with red light, which shows that red is power. It is a symbol, and the wives in every room want to light the lamp and want to have power. It means that red symbolizes both power and desire. Yan'er, who has always wanted to be a wife, her room was found by worn-out lanterns. The red is even more indicative of red. is a symbol of desire. In the red-shrouded Yan'er's room, Song Lian learned the secret of her stealing the lantern and tying her "little man", and the two started hands in the room, showing the last layer of red, which means violence and harmony. Danger.
In addition to Zhang Yimou's best use of red, the film also uses a lot of white and black. White symbolizes purity, but only outside the compound has such a symbol, that is, before entering the Chen Mansion, Song Lian, dressed in white, has the image of a pure schoolgirl. But in the compound, white has never been a symbol of purity, but instead symbolized death everywhere. When Mei Shan was found cheating and was dragged back to Chen's house, she was wearing white pants and died in the small black house. When Yan'er was punished by Songlian for stealing a lantern and was punished for kneeling, the whole scene was covered in heavy snow. Turning white also heralds the death of the geese. In the film, the lord always wears black clothes, so black is the symbol of the "lord", that is, the lord's power and feudal system. Whether it's the lamp cloth or the little black house, they are all symbols of the persecution of women by the feudal system, and the feudal system's implementer is the most powerful man in the film.
As a photographer Zhang Yimou, he pays great attention to the composition of the film. In "High Red Lanterns", the director used a lot of symmetrical composition to express the feudal system's restraint on women. When Song Lian first came to Chen Mansion, Song Lian was at the bottom of the picture, showing the humble status of women under the feudal system. Later, symmetrical composition was used many times in the film to express the repressive environment of the Chen Mansion, and it also showed the solemn and rigid Chen Mansion itself, just like an unchanging old rule, that is, the feudal etiquette system. In order to express the repressed atmosphere of Chen's house, the film also used closed composition and symmetrical composition for many times, coupled with the overhead camera position, which completely trapped the woman in this compound, because of the word "prisoner". At the end of the film, Song Lian can't get out of this square compound no matter how hard she walks, and this layer of metaphor is vividly expressed.
The director expresses the helplessness of women in the face of the feudal ethics system through various sound effects such as foot beating and lights out. At the beginning of the film, when Song Lian went to Chen's house, the sound the audience heard was the suona of marriage, but in the camera, Song Lian carried a suitcase and walked to Chen's house alone. The joyous voice was with the expressionless and alone Song Lian. A sound and picture opposition was formed. Every time the lights are turned off, the director not only uses close-up shots to emphasize the moment when the lights are turned off, but also amplifies the sound effects of the lights off. Turning off the lights means that the power of the wives disappears. By emphasizing the pictures and sounds of the lights off, the power of women is expressed in the face of the feudal system. powerless. The sound of foot beating is the same as the sound of turning off the lights. Song Lian was not used to the sound of foot beating for the first time. Later, when she heard the foot beating sound, the soles of her feet felt itchy. The sound of thumping feet is also a symbol of the feudal system. It slowly swallowed up the rationality of the women in Chen's house, showing the cannibalistic characteristics of the feudal ethics system.
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