Let me be a concubine. Isn't that the fate of a woman?
"
Good or bad, it's all playacting. If you act well, you can fool other people; if you do it badly, you can only fool yourself, and when you can't even fool yourself, you just can fool the ghosts."
— Meishan, Third Concubine.
is an award-winning 1991 film directed by
Zhang Yimou and starring
Gong Li, in the role that brought her to international attention. It is set in the early 1920s, well before the
rise of communism.
After the death of her father, 19 year old university-educated Songlian is left destitute. She marries wealthy Master Chen, becoming his fourth and youngest wife. Upon arriving at his palatial estate, she is greeted with a massage, and her private room is decorated with brightly lit, red paper lanterns preceding a visit from her new husband.
Songlian soon discovers that this treatment is not regular. Every evening, the four wives (Yuru, Zhouyun, Meishan and Songlian herself) are made to stand before their doors in their shared courtyard while their husband decides who he will sleep with that night, announced by the placing of
the eponymous red lantern in her doorway. That woman alone receives regal treatment, while the others are left alone. Trapped in the largely empty but claustrophobic estate, the four wives are locked in a constant power struggle for Chen's attention.
The film is an adaption of the 1990 novel
Wives and Concubines, by Su Tong. It was temporarily
Banned In China, until the film gained international praise and was shown to have a positive impact on tourism. The film was later adapted into a ballet.
This Film Provides Examples of:
- Accidental Public Confession: A drunken Songlian accidentally reveals Meishan's infidelity.
- Banned In China
- Beware the Nice Ones: Zhouyun has the face of the Buddha and the heart of a scorpion.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Second Wife is probably one of the most triumphant examples of this.
- Black and Gray Morality: Beyond the two very young children, there are almost no innocent characters. The cold-hearted protagonist and her fellow wives scheme until they destroy each other. The servants, who seem pathetic in their adoration of the noble Chen family, take a sudden turn into Nightmare Fuel when Songlian discovers how seriously they take the old family traditions...
- Building of Adventure: The film takes place almost entirely within the wives' rooms and the courtyard of the walled estate.
- Composite Character: There are three wives in the ballet instead of four and each take elements from at least two of the original four. The third wife is a combination of Songlian and Meishan, the second wife is a combination of Zhuoyun and Songlian, and the first wife is mostly like Yuru with hints of Zhuoyun.
- Costume Porn: The fine textiles of the wives especially stand out against the dull beige brick of the estate.
- Downer Ending
- Drowning My Sorrows: Songlian does this at one point, with disastrous consequences.
- Environmental Symbolism: The film starts in Summer and reaches its emotional climax in Winter.
- The Faceless: Master Chen's face is never seen clearly except for at a distance.
- Foreshadowing: Early on, Songlian finds a locked building with an abandoned pair of woman's slippers. This is where Meishan is taken to be excuted later.
- Good Old Ways: "The Chen family's customs go back many generations. It is important that you obey them."
- Green-Eyed Monster: Master Chen finds a flute in Songlian's bags and burns it without telling her anything, thinking it was a present from a boy at her former university. Turns out it had belonged to her late father.
- Ice Queen: Songlian.
- Karma Houdini: Zhuoyun.
- Law of Inverse Fertility
- May-December Romance
- No Hero to His Valet: Songlian is cold to her servant Yan'er from the beginning, and Yan'er wastes no time in ratting her out once she gets the chance.
- No Periods, Period: Averted.
- Old Retainer
- The Ophelia: Songlian at the film's end.
- Peking Opera
- Pillow Pregnancy: Songlian fakes a pregancy to gain power over Master Chen and the other wives. Exposed by the averting of No Periods, Period.
- Pretty in Mink: Some fur muffs, fur trimmed jackets, and a short white rabbit fur cape.
- Sanity Slippage
- Scenery Porn
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