Raise the Red Lantern
紅夢
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Four wives compete for the lantern that marks whose bed the master will visit; banned at home, celebrated abroad.
China in the 1920s. Songlian, an educated girl of nineteen, has lost her father and her family's money, and her stepmother makes her marry the rich Master Chen as his fourth wife. In his great walled house the master chooses each evening which wife he will spend the night with. Red lanterns are lit at her courtyard, and she is given a foot massage, the choice of the next day's meals and the servants' respect. His face is never clearly seen.
The First Mistress is old and rigid. The Second, Zhuoyun, is friendly and gives Songlian silk; the Third, Meishan, a former opera singer, is cold. Songlian's maid, Yan'er, resents her, having hoped to become a mistress herself. Songlian finds forbidden lanterns hidden in Yan'er's room, along with a charm cursing Songlian, and learns that it was Zhuoyun who wrote her name on it. Meishan tells her that Zhuoyun once tried to poison her, and that only a son will secure Songlian's place.
Songlian pretends to be pregnant. Zhuoyun and Yan'er expose her, and the master has her lanterns covered in black cloth. In revenge Songlian reveals Yan'er's hidden lanterns; the maid is made to kneel in the snow all night, falls ill and dies. On her twentieth birthday, drunk, Songlian lets slip that Meishan is having an affair with the family doctor. Zhuoyun catches them together. Songlian sees Meishan dragged to the locked room on the roof, where two women were once put to death for adultery, and Meishan is killed there. Songlian screams that they are murderers; the master tells her she saw nothing. She lights the lanterns in Meishan's empty courtyard and plays a recording of her singing, and the servants say the place is haunted.
The following summer the master takes a fifth wife. Songlian, gone mad, wanders the courtyards in her old student clothes.
Starring
Gong Lias Songlian
An educated girl of nineteen married off as a rich man's fourth wife, who learns the house's rules and is broken by them.
Songlian’s story
Songlian's father has died bankrupt, and at nineteen, pushed by her stepmother, she becomes Master Chen's fourth wife. She soon learns that the lanterns, the massage and the servants' respect go to whichever wife the master chooses that night. She finds a curse bearing her name in her maid's room, learns that Zhuoyun wrote the name, and cuts Zhuoyun's ear while cutting her hair. She fakes a pregnancy, is exposed, and has her lanterns covered in black; in revenge she exposes the maid's forbidden lanterns, and Yan'er, made to kneel in the snow all night, dies. Drunk on her twentieth birthday, she lets slip Meishan's affair and sees Meishan dragged to the room on the roof and killed. The next summer the master takes a fifth wife, and Songlian, mad, wanders the courtyards in her old student clothes.
He Saifeias Meishan, the Third Mistress
A former opera singer, proud and lonely, who is having an affair with the family doctor.
Meishan, the Third Mistress’s story
Meishan was an opera singer before she became Master Chen's third wife, and she is no longer the youngest or the favourite. She is cold to Songlian at first. After hearing that Songlian has cut Zhuoyun's ear, she tells her that Zhuoyun once tried to poison her when they were both pregnant, and that only a son will keep Songlian's place. She is having an affair with the family doctor, and when Songlian guesses it, she warns her to keep quiet and goes to meet him. That night, drunk, Songlian lets the secret slip. Zhuoyun finds Meishan in bed with the doctor at a hotel, and the servants drag her to the locked room on the roof, where she is killed. Afterwards her lanterns burn again in her empty courtyard, and a recording of her singing plays.
Cao Cuifenas Zhuoyun, the Second Mistress
Outwardly the kindest of the wives, and the one who schemes against every rival in the house.
Zhuoyun, the Second Mistress’s story
Zhuoyun welcomes Songlian with compliments and a gift of silk and warns her against Meishan. Yet it was Zhuoyun who wrote Songlian's name on the curse hidden in Yan'er's room, and, Meishan says, she once tried to poison Meishan when both were pregnant. Songlian, cutting her hair, cuts her ear. When Yan'er brings her proof that Songlian's pregnancy is a sham, Zhuoyun, feigning concern, asks the master to send for the doctor, who exposes it. When Songlian lets slip Meishan's affair, Zhuoyun catches Meishan with the doctor at a hotel. As Meishan is dragged away, Zhuoyun thanks Songlian for telling her.
Kong Linas Yan'er
Songlian's young maid, who had hoped to become a mistress herself and hates the woman she must serve.
Ma Jingwuas Master Chen
The master of the house, whose face is never clearly shown and whose choices rule his wives' lives.
Why it matters
Raise the Red Lantern turns a household into a machine. Four women compete for one man's nightly favour, and the privileges that come with it, the lanterns, the massage, the menu, are the whole economy of their lives. The master himself is barely seen, because the system does not need his face. Zhang Yimou's film of Su Tong's novella was shot in the Qiao Family Compound in Shanxi. It won the Silver Lion at Venice and was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign language film, yet in China it was banned, as his previous film, Ju Dou, had been. Roger Ebert wrote that beneath the comfort of the rich man's house lies the sin of slavery. The film's harder insight is that the women's rivalry keeps the machine running: each cruelty they do one another spares the master the trouble.