Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Prismark10 Raise The Red Lantern demonstrated the importance of Chinese cinema. Luscious use of colour, photography and setting it in the past meant you could use symbolism to make coded criticisms of China today without or hopefully not raising the eyebrow of the censor.Our protagonist Songlian is a 19 year old woman in 1920s China, beautiful and educated. When her father dies her step mother sells her as a concubine to her wealthy master. She is the fourth mistress and when the red lantern is lit outside her house, it signifies that the master will spend the night with her and she will be treated royally.The master has four wives, the first is older, maybe around his age and she has bore him a child but is largely forgotten. At her age she knows she cannot arouse the interest of the master.The film is almost soap opera like as the other wives compete for the interest of the master and this means conspiring, being petty and mean. It leads to tragic results and Songlian distils that this is a game where the women cannot win. As the wives get older the master will find a younger model with something different that interests him. She retreats into solitude.Director Zhang highlights the lack of power women had in the past in this Confucian orientated society but also shows what could happen to you if you did not play by the rules in an archaic system.

chaos-rampant This is a fascinating movie that you deserve to see mindfully. Zhang truly does it, in that he both gives us a clear picture whereby we can see ourselves with clarity and allows our gaze to wonder outside the walls of that picture. A fascinating interplay between these two notions of concentrating the gaze and letting float just so happens to power Chinese spiritual life, more on this in a bit.But now quickly to see what is it about, what clear picture emerges? A young girl has to enter a household as concubine, becoming one of four wives of a rich merchant who live inside a walled compound. So immediately the outside world of myriad possibilities and stories closes down behind her and us and life acquires a palpable order. Various rituals take place that together comprise a larger harmony. Magnificent red lanterns are lit outside the home of whichever wife the husband has chosen to spend the night with; the rest have to return disappointed to dark houses. A foot massage is given to the chosen wife that night, punctuated with a repetitive sound that echoes like temple chimes signaling the time for prayer. Other rituals: the camera itself doesn't roam freely but specific views are established. Looking down from the tiled roof, another facing the bed. The husband is never seen from up close, as if he exists outside this order.Taken together all these modes insinuate a world that is meticulously groomed and controlled, given structure and color that ritualize appearances. Very Chinese. Each time the lanterns are lit we know one woman has been chosen to be the center of this world for a fleeting night, life given a ceremonial glow.But is this harmony that we see? The obvious point is a critique of traditional mores left over from the old days and accepted unthinkingly, lives stifled by the walls imposed on them and how the four women scheme and vie for primacy in the order of things. It doubletimes just as well as a veiled critique of communist walls. Party censors thought as much and the work was banned in China.All of this will be readily available to the Western viewer from our own traditions of painterly beauty and institutionalized oppression. We can rest there and speak the usual platitudes about "the human condition", walk away thinking the film is all about how bad life was for women in China. Or we can - as with Mizoguchi before - attempt to cross into the world that gives rise to these images and reflects a more encompassing view.Zhang's meticulous abstraction (color - sound - camera - all of it bound by the cyclical turn of weathers outside) comes from a worldview where the same energy is felt to move through man and nature alike, not Western in the least. He's working in a long Chinese line of practiced abstraction with roots in the tea ceremony and the calligrapher's scroll where the effort is not decorative beauty for its sake. It's cultivated awareness that guides the spiritual realization that we are what we bring to life. The calligrapher controls his hand like someone who meditates concentrates his attention - so that it will begin to radiate effortlessly with what rises up from a unfettered, mindful heart.So if you don't just pass by like a visitor who looks pitifully at the cruelty of some faraway time and its victim? If you use the film to center within the walls of your own life that happened to you? In that case the film has wisdom in store, another view of seeing self and world.This is the notion that you have been born into this life and have now come to this house, circumstances made it so. Life could have been better, it could have been worse. We see a housemaid who'd love nothing more than to be a wife while the third wife manages to live a life without despair and regret that lets her sing freely. Will you add to the unhappiness, cause unhappiness to others, go mad?The title of this post refers to a mandala - a sacred space for the concentration of the gaze in Buddhism - frequently seen in Chinese temples; it depicts the universe as wheel and at the center lie craving and ego. See this like a mandala, see yourself in a life that you set in motion around the one ordained from above. Something to meditate upon

SnoopyStyle Songlian (Gong Li) is 19 year old having spent 6 months in university. After her father's death, she's berated by her stepmother into finding a rich man to marry. She is relegated to be the fourth wive to the powerful Chen Zuoqian. Each wive lives in her own identical separate house within the large compound. The wives scheme to keep the attention of the master. Each night, a red lit lantern is placed in front of the house of the wive that Chen intends to spend the night with. Songlian is given Yan'er as her maid who hates her and is having relations with the master. The first wive is ancient and resigned. The second wife seems friendly on the surface. The third wife is an opera singer.The cinematography is beautiful as well as the exotic setting. Li Gong is one of the most expressive actresses ever to come out of China. She creates a character that is not a simple damsel in distress. She is caught in a machine of institutionalized desperation. This is one of great movies that ushers in a new era of Chinese filmmaking.

primona This beautifully made film ranks high among my list of favorite movies. One reason is because of its film star, Li Gong, who I loved in Ju Dou, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Curse of the Golden Flower. The second reason is because of Director Yimou Zhang who directed Ju Dou, Hero, House of the Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower, all films that should be on your IMDb watchlist if you haven't seen them. The third reason is the exquisite writing and plot. The film is about 19 year old Songlian (Li Gong) whose family falls on hard times after the death of her father. She marries into the wealthy Chen family and becomes the fourth wife of Master Chen. The competition for his attention and affection among the wives is fierce. This is because the Master decides on a daily basis which wife he will spend the night with. Whomever he chooses gets her lanterns lit and special treatment including a foot massage, her choice of food at mealtime, and the most attention and respect from the servants. The first wife is routinely passed over so the other wives ignore her but the remaining wives hate each other and resort to trickery and backstabbing. The unhealthy environment leads to tragedy.This film is one that will have you continuing to look at the screen five minutes after it has ended. The wonderfully rich colors shown in the movie are in sharp contrast to the dark, depressing life of Songlian who once dreamed of a happy life before being forced into marriage