In the film we see all that is lovely and beautiful in the idyllic setting of a palatial-like estate where the relationships between women are explored carefully and perhaps too adequately for our liking in the form of four concubines. We view this estate through the eyes of a young girl of nineteen, who chooses to be married to a rich man as his fourth mistress when her father dies, leaving her no more money to attend university. In this glass menagerie of a household, the young girl must learn to keep her friends close and enemies even closer as it becomes evident that each woman must, by necessity, be in competition with the others for the attentions of their shared master.
Traditions and rules are important in this household and the film revolves around them, starting with the symbolic lighting of red lanterns at the house of whichever wife the master chooses to spend his evening. This tradition of lighting the lanterns is an honor that only one woman receives at a time and becomes a status symbol, not only elevating her above the other concubines, but also giving her more prestige in the eyes of the servants who show more respect to she who has lastly received the honor.
As young Songlian struggles to find her own place within the already destabilized feminine hierarchy, she exhibits a full range of human emotions and traits from rough arrogance to pained empathy and every pithy characteristic in between. We see in her a girl who learns too quickly the ways of viciousness and vindictiveness, possessiveness and spite. Yet in perhaps the most unlikely source she finds validation through realization of shared sorrows and apprehensions. In many ways we might see ourselves in her knee-jerk reactions to events, which she does not learn to curb easily.
In overall theme the film is disturbing and melancholy, not to be undertaken with the hopes of lively entertainment, but an attitude of retrospection and contemplation. For in the characters and their actions a pattern begins to emerge, suggesting a larger social commentary about the effects of a life of confinement, even one as prettily decorated and disguised. It is a none-too-gentle reminder that we each may carry around our own prisons instead of being locked inside of them.
Traditions and rules are important in this household and the film revolves around them, starting with the symbolic lighting of red lanterns at the house of whichever wife the master chooses to spend his evening. This tradition of lighting the lanterns is an honor that only one woman receives at a time and becomes a status symbol, not only elevating her above the other concubines, but also giving her more prestige in the eyes of the servants who show more respect to she who has lastly received the honor. As young Songlian struggles to find her own place within the already destabilized feminine hierarchy, she exhibits a full range of human emotions and traits from rough arrogance to pained empathy and every pithy characteristic in between. We see in her a girl who learns too quickly the ways of viciousness and vindictiveness, possessiveness and spite. Yet in perhaps the most unlikely source she finds validation through realization of shared sorrows and apprehensions. In many ways we might see ourselves in her knee-jerk reactions to events, which she does not learn to curb easily.
In overall theme the film is disturbing and melancholy, not to be undertaken with the hopes of lively entertainment, but an attitude of retrospection and contemplation. For in the characters and their actions a pattern begins to emerge, suggesting a larger social commentary about the effects of a life of confinement, even one as prettily decorated and disguised. It is a none-too-gentle reminder that we each may carry around our own prisons instead of being locked inside of them. The colors and composition of this film alone make it worth viewing as it captures all that is lovely about the art of cinematography.
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