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Raise the Red Lantern

World and International Narrative Cinema

Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li, adapted from Su Tong's novella Wives and Concubines, about Songlian, a young woman forced by her family's financial ruin to become the fourth wife of a wealthy man in 1920s China, and her entry into the rigid, ritualized rivalry among his household's concubines, where the nightly lighting of red lanterns signals whose chamber the master will visit that night. The film's stylized, symmetrical visual design and its use of the lantern ritual to dramatize confinement and status anxiety made it one of the most internationally recognized works of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers. It won the Silver Lion at the 1991 Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Facts
Classification
Original Language
Chinese 1
Award
BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language 2
Award
Hundred Flowers Award for Best Picture 2
Release Year
1991 1
Country
China, Hong Kong 1
FAQs

What do the red lanterns mean in Raise the Red Lantern?

Lit lanterns show which wife the master chose for the night.

The lanterns mark which wife the master has chosen. He decides each day which wife he will spend the night with, and the wife he chooses gets her lanterns lit, receives the foot massage and gets her choice of menu items at mealtime. The lanterns therefore show a wife's standing in the household from one night to the next.
Connections

Created By

Zhang Yimou, Figures
Source Wikipedia: Raise the Red Lantern

In Medium

Film, Media Forms
Source Wikipedia: Raise the Red Lantern
In the Other Atlases

Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Raise the Red Lantern
  • Introduction
    is a 1991 period drama film
  • Infobox, country
    China, Hong Kong
  • Raise the Red Lantern, Description, original language
    Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li, adapted from Su Tong's novella Wives and Concubines, about Songlian, a young woman forced by her family's financial ruin to become the fourth wife of a wealthy man in 1920s China, and her entry into the rigid, ritualized rivalry among his household's concubines, where the nightly lighting of red lanterns signals whose chamber the master will visit that night.
  • In Medium: Film, Article lead sentence
    Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 period drama film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li.
  • Created By: Zhang Yimou, Article lead sentence
    Raise the Red Lantern is a 1991 period drama film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li.
View the Source
2. Raise the Red Lantern (Wikidata)
  • Wikidata P166: BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
    Wikidata P166 (award received): BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.
  • Wikidata P166: Hundred Flowers Award for Best Picture
    Wikidata P166 (award received): Hundred Flowers Award for Best Picture.
View the Source
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