The color of this film is roughly composed of three parts, mainly white, red and black, representing the pure heart and the imprisoned utensils and cages. First of all, at the beginning of the film, Song Lian's white dress symbolizes purity, just like when she was a college student, she married into the mansion with a clean body. However, it is pure and flawless. From the time of lighting the red lantern and putting on the red shoes, it seems that there is no way out. White represents purity, red represents desire, and desire is more intense. Just as Song Lian stepped into the abyss of the mansion step by step, in the end, she could never find her former self. The big red lantern is just a tool used by feudalism to imprison people. In addition, when Song Lian stepped into the house, he used a panoramic shooting method, which was just right to take in the surrounded Qiao family compound, suggesting the tragedy of the characters locked in the cage by the dark and suppressed feudalism. The second is the color change of the scenes in the film. When Song Lian first entered the house, the film was dominated by red. It is a necessary element for a wedding scene with a passionate plot, but it also forms a sharp contrast with the tall and narrow gray and black walls of the Qiao Family Courtyard, giving people a heavy sense of oppression. When it was later found in the building where the wrongdoer was executed, it was dark and desolate, and the scene changed to black and white. Representing the destined sadness of this story, the protagonist can only be engulfed or even "eaten" by this gloomy social environment. At the climax, the third aunt was executed and buried in the building. A heavy snow fell, mourning the misfortune of the third aunt, and a large white area. This seems to imply that Song Lian is still struggling to resist, and it is also full of endless sorrow that the resistance cannot be successful. Finally, talk about some simple color configurations other than the protagonist. Yan'er, a little maid in pink, was a victim of tragedy when she first entered the mansion. Representing youthful vitality, but hating Songlian because of obsession, and eventually lost its luster, and finally died in the fire cage of red lanterns. And isn't the root cause of all these obsessions the feudal ideology? If she wants to live, in the feudal environment, the best outcome for her is to become the fourth concubine, even if she is married to a child. This feudalism is like the color of the Qiao family's compound, which can engulf all darkness. This light pink is still suffocated, and it cannot escape the erosion of darkness in the end. And when San Yiniang confronted Songlian, San Yiniang finally took off her red costume and turned into a black dress, which seemed to imply the fate of the characters, from the favored bride to the one who could not resist after all. The sorrow of an old man. It also seems to imply that she has lost her youth, the brilliance will never return, and she will be buried under this invisible feudalism. The film also deliberately blurred the character of Mr. Chen. He only appeared in black and never showed his face. In fact, it represented that there were thousands of such masters in the society at that time, creating such a cage. It satirizes the deep-rooted feudalism of the society, which is all pervasive. If you don't change from the basics, women will still be unable to escape the fate of being " imprisoned" by red lanterns. All in all, in my opinion, Zhang Yimou's use of color in this film is the most extreme, and it should be the cold and sad interpretation of the original lively and vibrant red. No matter how warm and pure, a learned woman can't decide her own destiny. Injecting an endless desolate and unfinished soul into the whole film, it is shocking. At the same time, I have to say that this movie is also one of the best works of Zhang Yimou in my opinion.
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