artisticritique: Raise the Red Lantern (dir. Zhang Yimou) Doors and hallways are often used as frami

artisticritique:

Raise the Red Lantern (dir. Zhang Yimou)

Doors and hallways are often used as framing devices in film, the tight composition is a visual and symbolic cue for entrapment and limitation in movement. Perhaps it’s not surprising to find Zhang Yimou shoot Songlian (Gong Li) standing or walking within the frames of multiple doors and corridors. This is in line with Songlian’s life, imprisoned within the castle of her suitor playing fourth wife in a scenario reminiscent of Kobo Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. As with the Japanese novel, Raise the Red Lantern paints a vivid oppressive reality to draw parallels with feudalistic traditions and systems of misogyny. Gong Li’s emotional portrayal and the plot’s heavy undertones are appropriately matched with Zhang’s penchant for bold colors and Zhao Jiping’s similarly striking score for.

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