Zhang Yimou’s “Red Sorhum” is a symbolic, romantic and also violent film set in the late 1980s in China. Since it was set in this time outside of the states, this film is not a modern film which leads to the many unique features that is not present in many Hollywood films. One of the features that I feel separates this film from other modern films is the over dramatic artwork and the focus on details that fully depicts the character’s current mood and feelings. For example, the waving sorghum fields set a sensual image that illuminates the peasant life. Another example is how the eclipse sets a flush of red throughout the last scene which fully portrays the anger and violence that enveloped the entire scene. Next, I want to mention the sudden tone changes throughout the movies which changes from light to dark and happiness turning to horror as soon as the Japanese forces take over the fields. The simplicity of this story is what I feel allows for this sudden change of tone which is another reason that sets this film apart from Hollywood films. However, this film made me realize that films that do not follow the typical set up for modern films can also be very successful if not more notable then many Hollywood films. Similar to Fist of Fury, this film portrays the animosity between the Japanese and the Chinese during World War II. Unlike Fist of Fury which showed the common discrimination towards the Chinese, Red Sorhum showed a much darker and heartless side of the Japanese through there relentless violence towards the peasant workers. The scalping scene in particular shows the audience the wrongful actions of nations during the time of war. However, Yimou does a great job justifying the Chinese peasants by praising their actions in revolting against the Japanese despite their lack of firepower/technology. The fact that simple peasants without any weaponry of any sort but there Red Sorhum attacking fully armed Japanese men for pure revenge sets the scene for an awe inspiring finale. In addition, the cinematography further amplifies the awe inspiring atmosphere.
In the movie Red Sorghum, the director Yimou Zhang, wants to show us life prospect/landscape in the countryside. People who live in Shibali mountain, they have a free life, enjoy their work and hatred for the Japanese enemy, brave enough to avenge even if that may cause death. The director shows distinct characters. Jiuer is the portrayal image of Chinese traditional woman. Zhanao is a typical Shanbei man, who has loud voice, full of energy, burly, real human nature and brave enough to love and hatred. The part which I found interesting is, people sing a wine song to show divine worship to wine. Wine as catalyst, seems to regulate emotional and strengthening interpersonal relationships. In the film, the director choose to bold RED, such as red dress, red scarf, red chair, red sorghum as well as bloody and red sun. It seems like red storm hit the audience attention with free, passion, desire, and joys of life under such a red background. In addition, we also identify Chinese traditional instruments like gong and suona, which is used in wedding ceremony in the past. Other cultural elements includes pride in the sedan chair and carried to husband’s home, and the marriage arranged by go-between, which means the couple haven’t seen each other until the married day. This situation is always arranged by parents in that feudal society. Therefore, that refers to gender discrimination to females. Wedding sometimes is like a trade. From the structure of the house, decoration and furniture, donkey transportation, ways to make food, we can know the poor and undeveloped situation in the countryside. The end part is about Japanese aggression in China. People are brave to avenge hatred although they don’t have advanced weapons. At that time, the film shows the poor power and low status of Chinese government. Japanese soldiers indulged in killing people and looting in China. People reactions shows patriotism and willing to be stronger and get ride of such feudal society. In my opinion, the RED also refers to red revolution in China, which Chinese fight against aggressive power and let China be stronger.
Red Sorghum is a film that portrays some issues that were important in China's history, namely the betrothal of women in marriages, the Confucian ideals of a patriarch rather than a matriarch, and the Japanese invasion of World War II. Jiu'er is forced to marry a man she does not want, but she takes over as the boss when he dies. This is in direct contrast to the old ideals of women being subservient, and most likely the Communist government at the time the film was made wanted to break away from the outdated values of the kingdoms and imperial rule. The film fits in with Chinese national cinema, and like Fist of Fury praises Chinese nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment. The terrible violence is more directly shown in Red Sorghum, however, such as the scene where Luohan is flayed on Japanese orders. The cinematography in the film could be described as elegant and artful, and the variety of shots and takes make for very interesting camerawork. The color red is heavily emphasized throughout the movie, and is even used in the title. The red may also refer to red Communist China or the blood spilled. The film was very intriguing, and although the beginning for me was very difficult to watch the latter section of the film glued my eyes to the screen.
I really disliked this movie and there were several elements of the movie that made me feel this way. To start, the movie really lacked cohesiveness. In the beginning the movie seemed to be heading in a romantic direction between Jiu'er and the chairman. However, that romance is pushed along in a very awkward fashion and then suddenly we find ourselves in an anti-Japanese war movie. Not that there is anything wrong with a movie switching directions, this movie just did it in such an abrupt fashion that it really detracted from the film as a whole. Everything seemed to be just added in as a plot device, without much explanation or reasoning behind it. For example, why did Louhan leave the winery? It just happens out of nowhere and then next we see he is captured and skinned by the Japanese. This doesn't serve a purpose except to showcase the brutality of the Japanese. It felt so forced that I didn't feel anything for the characters or their plight, I couldn't get into the movie. Not just Louhan, but with almost everything that happened. Another thing that really bothered me about this movie was the 'romance,' if you can call it that, between Jiu'er and the chairman. Essentially we just see Jiu'er get raped once, and questionably raped two other times. The two times she slept with the chairman seemed so forced, not only upon Jiu'er, but also in the context of the film. The chairman grabs Jiu'er, who just sucked down a bowl of wine, and carried her into her room, then suddenly they have a child and all is grand. Nothing is fleshed out between the two, and the relationship lacks depth, which makes everything feel forced and unbelievable.
Seung Tae Kim Red Sorghum is a 1987 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou, and because of Red Sorghum is what caused Yimou to be heralded as one of the greatest directors in Chinese cinema. Red Sorghum is a depiction of the rural poor in China during the Japanese conflict. The first thing to mention in Red Sorghum is the almost omnipresent depiction of the color red. Almost every shot in this film contains something of a red/orange color, most notably the shots containing our main female lead. I guess the redness not only takes after the title of the movie, it also is there to sort of illustrate the idea of the frustration felt by the people. Not only the frustration of the condition of the peasants, but also the frustration of the Chinese people being oppressed by the Japanese colonists. The introduction of the Japanese imperialists marks the transition of the film. It is the point that indicates that the fate of the characters is now going to take a downward spiral. It transitions from a friendly and likeable camaraderie to brutal depictions of torture and war crimes.
The opening scene of the film Red Sorghum by Zhang Yimou, is a girl getting ready for the marriage. The scene after this is where she is in a sedan bound to her husband's place. In this scene, the setting of the film is well shown. There isn't much else to show for setting since the entire film takes place in Shibali which only has desert and sorghum. The film contains some erotic features at the beginning but right when the Japanese army invades, the film sussenly becomes grusome and violent. The particular example of this grusome feature is definitely the scene where the butcher's son has to peel the skin of Luohan who is his fellow country man. The film Red Sorghum has some ironic details as well. There are significant images with red color which Chinese think to be very good. Also, when the narration speaks, all the numbers in it are 'nine' which Chinese think to be a lucky number. However, as the film progresses it contains very depressing mood. So much so that everyone dies at the end except for Li and his son. The eclipse that passed at the end can be translated as new beginning because it covered entire 'old' sun and 'new' sun came out. There are a lot of long shots in this film. Some examples are when the kidnappers arrive over the hill of Shibali and the other is when brother Luohan leaves Shibali. However, most of the long shots were used to contain details for the setting of the film. The last shot of the film gave a very strong impression to the audience because the whole screen went red and mysterious eclipse was going on. Also, the facial expression of the protagonist, Li, was shown through middle shot and the expression stays very intense even during the eclipse which must not have been a normal phenomenon at the time.
"Red Sorghum" is stunningly beautiful to watch. It is presented as a folk story told by an unseen narrator, grandson of its two main characters. The opening scenes are calm and colourful,beginning with the lush sorghum fields, the pleasant singing of the sedan carriers, throwing in some amusing moments such as the narrator’s drunk grandfather spending three days sobering up in a liquor vat or urinating on the wine. The second half of the film takes away all the pleasantness. The Japanese arrive and round up the Chinese workers. By this point the narrator’s father has been born but the horrors he and his parents have to face are appalling. The violence is implied rather than seen but the film takes a very dark turn and culminates in Jiu’er wanting to take on the might of the Japanese army. The film leaves behind the romance and rural idyll its opening reels promise, plunging us into the horrors of war. That final scene is powerful with the narrator’s grandfather and father standing together beneath a red eclipse. The red color is significant in ths film. It shows the color red—of the sorghum crop, the wine, the Chinese bridal dress, and blood—permeates the film. The red setting sun that ends the film might represent the flag of the Japanese conquerors, or simply the inevitable shortness of every human life. This film also contains contradictions. Containing darkly comic elements, it is also a violent film; the villagers treat each other violently and the men treat women violently, but their violence pales compared to their treatment at the hands of the Japanese army. This film directly shows the chinese culture and history.
Red Sorghum, directed by Jang Yimou, explicitly portrays the lusty peasant life with beautiful, Ansel Adams-like shots of landscape; but, behind the robust vitality of countrymen rests the painful history of China during the war against Imperial Japan. Throughout the film, director Jang Yimou attempts to deliver the messages to the viewers through different elements such as rich cinematography and camera work. The dynamic color scheme the director adopts is evident from the beginning scene of the film in which Jiu’er, sitting in the sedan, looks straight into the camera. The striking red overtone in this scene portrays injustice and suffering of females in the highly patriarchal society. Similarly, in the final scene, the husband, boldly standing with his son, looks directly at the camera. Again, director Jang Yimou uses even stronger crimson color to portray anguish and dejection after the fight. The distinguished red color one can find in the film including the first and last scene represents the theme of the film such as power, patriotism, and dynamics in China. Furthermore, the unusual bottom-heavy shots of scenes are notable throughout the film. Conventionally, a long shot exhibits the full body of the character from head to toe, but director Jang Yimou repeatedly neglects part of the head in many of the scenes such as a laborer blowing a horn at the peak of the mountain or Jiu’er riding the mule back home. Also, oftentimes large proportion of a landscape shot is more focused on the ground than the sky. These highly unbalanced shots evoke unsettling emotions from the viewers which again remind us of the message he hopes to deliver in the film. His attempt to provoke such feelings is also evident in cinematography. In the scene in which Jiu’er spends her first night with her ill husband, the director repeats the sequence shots of the outside landscape (blue tone) and interior of the house (red tone). Though he doesn’t explicitly show the scene of her and her husband together in a room, the director tries to demonstrate Jiu’er’s uneasiness by using the repetitive sequence of complimentary colors.
“Red Sorghum” There are various examples of Instinct of human natures are revealed in this film. Bandit who tried to rape Jiu'er, father who sells his daughter for money, relationship between Jiu'er and Zhanao, action after Zhanao is drunken, etc. are examples of people who does as they feels like. The movie portrays human nature as neither good nor evil. A Reddish color is shown throughout the film and it becomes clearly red at the end. The color “red” symbolizes many things such as nationalism, romance, and bloody massacre by Japanese. Simply the color “red” symbolize life, and I believe the director of the movie want to show what the life is. Only thing this movie left me was futility; I felt that the movie was just listing events happened throughout Jiu'er’s life, there is no meaning to it, just go with the flow.
Sound in the Red Sorghum plays a very important part in emphasizing both plot and character emotions. For example, in the beginning of the film, the wedding parade had a very happy feel to it because of the chatter going on amongst the men and the music from the instruments. When the jostle of the carriage happened, we see the inside of the sedan as dark and the girl obviously feeling unwell from the movement. But the outside of the sedan is bright and merry, displaying a distinct contrast to the feeling of marriage that she is experiencing. When one of the men finally hear her cries, they stop the movements and an abrupt silence follows the procession. This eerie silence foreshadows what kind of a marriage life she will be leading. These abrupt sound and light distinctions portray the girl's feelings about the marriage very well because she is marrying a 50 year old leprous man when she is young herself. The film does not explicitly say how the marriage was arranged but it can be assumed that the girl was unwilling and so her dark feelings about this marriage is a stark contrast to the bright exterior of the wedding sedan.
Red Sorghum I don’t really know what to say about this movie, Red Sorghum directed by Zhang Yimou. I don’t dislike it or anything but I just find it particularly different from most of the modern films of its time. Unlike many other films that use various color contrast to amplify the subtle changes in characters and scenes, Yimou mainly focus on the color red; it’s even suggested in the movie title. The red-shaded contrast throughout the film makes me feel disoriented as it is being splashed all over the screen. It almost seems set up for a horror movie. There were two scenes that I wanted to mention which Yimou greatly emphasize upon with the redness, I believe. The first scene was the very first scene of the film where the main woman, Jiu, was being carried on a sedan chair to meet her newly wedded husband. The men carrying Jiu were swaying the sedan back in forth and wildly singing and dancing around as Jiu, in a womb-like interior, pants and gasps unsettlingly. The shots of Jiu during this scene were all coated in red and with all the men carrying her half-naked, the scene just felt creepy to me. And also quite disturbing because I think this scene was supposedly portraying the sexually desires of the men, but it didn’t register through me. The other scene I wanted to talk of is noticeably the last scene. Yimou literally flushed the screen in red as the eclipse sets and the battle of the peasants and Japanese armed soldiers ended. I thought it was unique way to end the movie as the red symbolize the anger and violence of the peasants.
Red Sorghum, directed by Zhang Yimau, is one of the more bizarre and unsettling films I have seen. The film lacks a clear sense of direction from the beginning of the film, with a displaced, faceless, and nameless voice providing the driving narration of the film and no clear visual shots of the actors until several minutes into the opening sequences. No introduction or reason to engage with the characters is given. Instead we are thrown into a crude, stark landscape with boorish behavior that mimics the setting. The characters are as mean as the landscape, with the carrying men taunting the helpless bride to be and tossing her about in the sedan because she refuses to sing to them. Even later in the film, Jiu’er is raped with little forethought or ceremony. Death and brutality and the deepest unplesantries of human existence are all exposed in the film. The harshness of peasant life was conveyed through the actions of the characters. Conversation was a luxury; these people survived solely focusing on subsistence. The film’s strength was in it’s visual directing. The shots of the sorghum fields were breathtaking and the entire palate of the film consisted of the same color tones, gold, red, and other warm tones. The sorghum fields added beauty and depth to an otherwise humorless existence. During several sorghum field scenes, there was a prominent amplified rustling sound as the wind whistled through the dry stalks. Particularly in the chasing scene between Jiu’er and the chair carrier, the sorghum provided the white noise and cover for the illicit deed. Even her father was unaware of what happened during her brief departure from the paved road. In the sorghum fields, men act upon their crudest fantasies. Sadistic Japanese soldiers even carry out the brutal, painful death of Luohan in the sorghum field. The sorghum field represents the gap between normal existence and the unimaginable.
Yimou Zhang, the director of “Red Sorghum,” created his film in a coherent matter, combining the visual elements to the story. Zhang has successfully drawn the vigorous life of countryside in China, through adding selective amounts of mysterious colors and distinct folk music. Although there are many sudden attacks and situations that occur, the film flows in a simplistic manner through Zhang’s use of filming skills. From the beginning to the end, the events follow up through narrator speaking to the audience, suggesting that “Red Sorghum” is a twice-told fable. This tale telling effect makes audience to feel that the story is true, depicting the real side of Chinese life during late 1920s. Moreover, the cheaply made-fast shifts from scenarios to another help the viewers to visualize the wild, dramatic life changes during the time. The continuity of the conquers and fights, within the use of background music, adds intensity to the story. The loud drum beats and men-singing voices shape the intense atmosphere. For an example, in the beginning of the story where Jiu'er is sent to the marriage, the men were singing in a very loudly manner, making the girl dizzy and sick. The intensity of the drum beats also built intimate atmosphere, foreshadowing unexpected upcoming forces. Furthermore, Chinese red is a noticeable color in the film. In fact, the use of color both dominates and unifies the story of events all together. The color of red shapes the mood of extreme madness, feeling, life force, and revenges that fit well to “Red Sorghum.” At the end of the film, where the Chinese villagers and Jiu’er is found dead, the screen is completely covered with red, showing the anger and the dead-blood of Chinese people. Although “Red Sorghum,” is far from a modern and sophisticated film, Zhang has successfully directed the film with symbolic quality of images and visual elements.
I think this movie contains two genres: romance, and Anti-Japanese. I was able to find the romance part when Jiu'er met the true love instead of the real husband who bought her from her father. Anti-Japanese was seen when Shibali people fought against crucial Japanese. However, combination of these genre disturbed me to focus on the movie because genre has changed so abruptly without specific explanation about those chages. In addition, this movie shows social circumstances in China of that era. Jiu'er was very dutiful to her husband eventhough her social status was higher.In this movie, Jiu'er represent typical Chinese women of that time period. One more charateristic of this movie distinct from other movie was color choices. Director decided to put the red color in every single scene. At first time I couldn't find what this color meaning; however, on the later scene when Japanese appeared, I figured out that color red means the fury of Chinese against Japanese.
The film Red Sorghum is one of the best movie that represents traditional china movie as well as china culture and own color. In China, their symbolic color is red and they believe that color red brings luck to them. In this movie, color red is shown by all running time of the movie. For instance, it seems to me almost every element in the movie is red such as a handcart, fire, red wine, and the room that decorated by red color. At this point, red illustrates that positive color. Later, after Japanese kills Lou Huan cruelly, blood just shows up a lot through the screen, in addition when people try to fight with Japanese army for revenge, there are a lot of blood that makes sorghum to have red color and sky is red too. At this time, red seems like miserably red giving us kind of feeling that sad beautiful. In Red Sorghum, there are many elements that represents china own custom. First of all, pre-arranged married is hard to see at these days. Second, they admire God on the special day to celebrate their wine business. Third, China was another huge communist party followed by Soviet Union at that historic era. In the movie, Jiu'er announce to worker that everyone will share the one. In addition, it seems to me surprised that workers does not have any problem with Jiu'er, even if she is female. Red Sorghum also illustrates how chines have suffered by poor at that period. Jiu'er's father just exchange his daughter with one donkey, which is impossible to imagine now. The music is consisted of traditional china instrument. The film is narrated from the point of view of the protagonist’s grandson, which makes movie more realistic and vital.
There are many movies that don't explain strongly what's going on in the movie so that many viewers would wonder what the movie's theme is. 'Red sorghum' is one and its reason is simple. The scenario is not a matter. What the matter is to describe the soul of Chinese which lived along with Chinese people and will survive the cruel and inhuman Japanese invasion. The movie tried really hard to show the Chinese rural areas beautifully even though the movie's entire scenes are red and yellow. Fashion coordinator and director must considered really hard to pick clothes that can be natural with the red-and-yellow-only-frame. I should admit that the views on the movie were fantastic. However, the lack of explain made this movie's first half boring and first half's scene had few artistic view. I should have been misunderstood that I am watching documentary film or something if there was no second half of the film. Even if the ordinary life is in the film, the scene could be more intriguing than this by using more dynamic camera movement or some sort. The controlling the quantity of explanation could be the most troublesome and delicate part that movies from the its original novel should have to overcome and 'Red sorghum' could not overcome this. With all its defects, however, the movie is worth to watch because of the last scene, which symbolizes the wounded bleeding China can raise again. The last scene, the child is singing bearing his tears in front of his mother and red sun, which is painting everything red, is raising on the wildly waving sorghum.
Red Sorghum a film by Zhang Yimou portrays the struggle of the peasant life within the Chinese-Japanese war. Jiu'er the main character, is the central aspect of the story and viewers are brought into her life story, although its narrated by her grandson. Yimou also shows how certain people rise from a struggle and come out stronger. The true life struggle of the lower classes of the Chinese population is shot through many aspects that other directors have not used before. When the Japanese prescience is discovered within the Sorghum fields, the peasants attempt to rise up against them, which comes with a price of loss of life. The shame that Luohan goes through is very great to his values, as the the infiltration of Japanese forces equals the Chinese to follow suit and in exchange forget their own. The Chinese show the courage of commitment and numbers.
Yimou also uses the scenery of the farmlands, that most audiences in that generation would not be exposed to. With mostly scenery angles, focusing on surrounding environment, as well as wide background shots, the viewer sees the whole experience of Eastern China that is never exposed. The Sorghum fields also carry a special kind of symbolism within this film, it represents the hope of the peasants. The Sorghum is plentiful within this region, and so are the peasants. When uttillized properly great results are achieved, although they never truly die out, they are always re-growing and expanding, showing the never ending loss of hope.
To be honest I am still no quite sure about how to feel about “Red Sorghum”. On the one hand I really liked the visual style of the movie. Firstly because the obvious redness through out the movie made the style unique. I also liked the fact that sometimes between all the redness Zhang Yimou added shots, which were overly blue. Those shots were a nice contrast to the red and I felt they were needed for the eyes to recover from all the intensity. I also liked that the colors fit well into the dry desert-like setting of the plot. The landscapes and the nature were nicely captured in this movie and that is something I really appreciate in movies. Additionally in some shots the silhouettes of the sorghum field shadowed the strong sunlight. In many ways it reminded me of the light in Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”, letting me to think that maybe Zhang Yimou was also experimenting with the visuals throughout the movie.
On the other hand probably influenced by to many Hollywood love stories, at first I thought the film “Red Sorghum” was going to be a romantic one. Nevertheless I soon figured out that this was not going to be the case. Interestingly enough though, it was not apparent to me in which direction the plot was heading. Was it going to be a movie about suppressed women, the life story of the illegitimate child or a story about a how the poor became rich? For some reasons, still not entirely clear to me, I was disappointed of the (political) direction the plot did take. It was as if the whole story was slowly built up with a lot of effort and detail, just for the hopes and assumptions made with it, to be destroyed once again by some evil. “The evil” in this case meaning the Japanese invasion. Even though the turn of events where not predictable, the biggest impact the plot had on me was a dissatisfying one.
Amongst the rolling waves of lush grass, nature overwhelms the initial background of Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum. A distinct aspect of this period film is the coloring, where red is a significant note. The setting included a winery, where the particular liquid encompasses the intense coloring. Across the plot, cinematography carries the audience in noticing the wide view of the countryside in eastern China. A consistent tone initially where a woman is being sent into an arranged marriage, but several overlaps do occur. Director Zhang Yimou ultimately notes how nature is a key point of this film, but one does notice the sudden change in emotion. Where nature signifies the calmness, there is an opposite factor that derails the true meaning of nature. The simple life of peasants working in a winery, where their lives can be corrupted by thieves and adultery, explains the negative sentiment to society. Yet, Zhang Yimou instills a historic factor where the audience notices the tragic side behind the plot. Although the cultural facet of Red Sorghum is strongly featured, one interesting factor is once again how there are long shots featuring peasants working within the field. This connects nature to the horrors that ruins the serene feature of it. At a particular scene, the audience can see how the peasants in China are being colonized by the imperialistic forces of Japan. Then, the brutal acts the Imperial Japanese army imposes upon the peasants points the strong sentiment Zhang Yimou had against the past Japanese rule of China. This poses with the violence against nature act, where such horrifying crimes are committed within the realms of a quiet field. Ultimately, the characters featured in this story explain the treatment of the Chinese by the Imperial Japanese Army. An example to how nature being mistreated by the people is a key note in this film and Zhang Yimou utilizes how people in general are dangerous animals that ruin their own living environment.
In the film “Red Sorghum”, the director’s intention was well described. As the name of the movie depicts, general atmosphere and background are reddish. It amplified the film’s tension and cruelty even more especially when the Chinese slaughterman was forced to peel off Luohan’s skin. The odd situation when Jiuer took over the town seemed ideal compared to the Chinese Confucian culture back then. The rural and carefree peasants making wine was also peaceful until Japanese army invaded the town. The transition takes place when the Japanese army forced the peasants to snap the sorghums. They oppressed the Chinese people and treated them inhumanely. However, with their poor equipment, the peasants rebel against Japanese force. This represented national cinematic elements. I think the wine was a symbol for their ritual and spirit against unwelcomed invader. The scene of Jiuer dropping the wine pot when she got shot by Japanese force revealed the peasants’ broken and shattered hope. It was a tragic ending compared to “Fist of Fury”, but more realistic.
the symbolism of red in the film is intense. The first use of it was Jiu'er's wedding, where the audience is introduced to the unwillingness of the bride, in addition to her lifting of the red veil even though she was told not to. The atmosphere of the wedding is ominous and signifies trouble in the later part of the film. Another use of red is the symbolism of the red soghum wine, which plays an important part in cementing the unity of the Chinese against the Japanese as they defiantly drink the red wine and vow to avenge Luohan. The last significant use of red is the scene where the narrator's grandfather's eyes only see red, although it was attributed to the presence of the sun. It signifies the bloodshed in the movie, and the strong theme of political struggle.
The scenes of nature are intriguing as well. The soghum field is described to be "wild" and "haunted" by the narrator, and the highlight comes during the scene where Jiu'er and the chair man acknowledged their desire for each other, where the soghum is filmed in close proximity and detail to depict the complicatedness and passion in the relationship. During Jiu'er's official nuptial night, the moon also shifts from being a full moon to a half moon, giving a mysterious feeling. The last scene of the sun being covered by clouds during Douguan's mourning for his mother is also especially memorable. The movie ends with an unexpected eclipse, as if signifying more unexpected events to unfold
One very interesting characteristic of this movie was the presence of the narrator who never showed up throughout the running time. The narrator is the grand child of Jiu'er, and this showed that the family has thrived even though one of the family member is killed. To include my opinion on this, it can be said that it was the whole family that died and the ones who remained alive are the father and son. However, they lived to deliver the stories to next generations. The overall color of the shots was red, and it gave very Chinese flavour on the movie. I also feel like the color red was a sign of Jiu'er's rather unhappy life that started with being sold to a leprous man and was ended just like that by Japanese soldiers' gun shots. At the end, where the sorghum field is all crashed and dead bodies lied down with fire, the solar eclipse was a very well matched scene. The eclipse actually strengthened the red color of the film and the movie just colored the scenes with red. I felt it was a very brutal scene because it seemed like the scene was covered with blood. Talking about the ideology hidden in the movie, it is said that the movie was actually praising the communism. Come to think of it, the color of communism is known to be red if my memory serves me right. Also, there were lots of signs of communism, such as the laborer killing his boss, the woman leading, and also laborer and the boss being treated equally. It certainly was good to see people getting along with without any prejudices based on their titles. Also, I agree that the fight ordered by Jiu'er is quite reasonable because Japanese had to be paid for what they have done. But as a consequence, they paid too much just to repay to Japanese soldiers. Nevertheless, the presence of the narrator seems like it is trying to show how the life can be carried on and to a better position.
Red Sorghum Without basic information of this movie, I claim that this movie has a lot of aspects to dissect. Made in 1988, Red Sorghum has anticipated in making China’s early 19th century of which its country life culture, rituals, lifestyles have been shown. With addition of radical and extreme sense of blood and cruelty, China’s country life culture has no place to hide itself. Throughout the movie, it was full of assumptions, questions, and unanswered sequences. What first came as a mysterious was the first 40 minutes of the movie. So getting the idea of what is happening in terms of marriage of narrator’s grandmother, I could not find the reason why she said literally nothing for first 40minutes of the movie. There were long takes, hand-held panning, zoom-ins, wide angles, long panning shots of carriers, and a grandmother, but the grandmother did not say anything but just a short of moaning. Then in terms of movie sequences, I wish I could classify this movie as a documentary of a journey of one tragic family. The narrator first told what would happen to his grandparents, so the tension has become dull and spoiled. Also the jump from one scene to another has been too radical that the gap was incomprehensible (maybe the subtitle also played key role in making more incomprehensible). Listing other wondering questions, the grandmother (seemingly very young and beautiful) has changed her lethargic, sad, quiet attitudes toward active, energetic, dedicated character very suddenly without showing a motivated cause. Also, when Japanese conquered the sorghum field, there were not subtitles for Japanese actors’ speaking. It could have been better if there were subtitles. In addition, just in very general sense, there were not adequate flows of conversation among people. Furthermore, the absence of conversation did not outstand the silent acting of characters. Last but not least, I did not fully get the sense of number 9. Ninth day of September in Luna calendar, ninth child of a family, 9 years later, and the age of narrator’s father is nine, etc. I was not able to comprehend the power of nine, nor connect the importance of number nine to any of Chinese historical backgrounds.
The internationally known film, Red Sorghum was directed by Zhang Yimou. The film focuses on a woman who is married into the business of a distillery. One characteristic that can be found in this film is the negative characteristics of men and the strong feminist attitude of Jiu’er. Most women during that time had barely any rights due to the Confucius upbringings. In the beginning of the movie, Jiu’er is the obedient daughter that is put into an arranged marriage by her father. It is unfortunate for her that she has no power to refuse the arranged marriage since it aids her father’s financial needs. Later on, the film shows Jiu’er’s father’s harsh criticism of her husband’s gift, thus demonstrating the father’s selfishness. Jiu’er is deeply angered that her own father treats her with no respect and in result claims to never visit him again. Another moment where Jiu’er shows her strong personality is when she takes over the distillery. Even though she doesn’t know much, she learns from others and takes charge of the business. Her determination and leadership helps the distillery survive the hard times. Director Zhang Yimou is internationally known for his talented skills of colorful cinematography. When the brewery was shown in the film, the color of brown and yellow were constantly used in the backgrounds. This yellow tint allowed the atmosphere of the whole film to have a vintage and fairytale display. This matched the story-telling aspect of the film perfectly. The intense richness of the yellow color and the vibrant display of the sun helped give the story an unrealistic impression. Also the red color was intensely used in the last parts of the film. Since the last parts of the film had an immense amount of blood shed and death, the red color amplified the sorrow of war and death. The red tint almost looked like the surviving characters were covered in blood. This depiction makes it seem like the characters were covered in their comrade’s blood. Covered with their friend’s blood, this shows the character’s sadness of loosing loved ones.
The point and the purpose of this movie are ambiguous. At the end of the movie, it makes the audience to be on self-question mode. The movie seems to be here and there, and sometimes i do not know why the characters act in that way such as peeing in the wine jar, and for that, she gets sexually attracted. Also, there are somehow romance, and historical Japanese hostility. Thus half of the movie, I thought it is about romantic movie but the end it is just about the Japanese cruelty. It seems like all those stories are disconnected and it is hard to consider this movie as completed movie to publish. As the title, the movie contains red element and right at the end where the "grandfather" has a long shot, the entire screen was totally red. The movie respected audience because it made audiences to expect cruel scenes but it went over them. I wonder why the story has to be told by the grandson, although we have no information about the story teller in the movie.
The red sorghum set a story in the barren wilderness around the north-eastern Gaomi Township, Zhang departed from the lush southern landscapes that Beijing preferred to see extolled on screen. Zhang who is a director also depicted his protagonists in a far from idealised light, as he permitted them to indulge their basest instincts, right down to urinating in the wine vats. Moreover, by allowing the only avowedly Communist character to perish at the hands of the invading imperialists, I think that Zhang also suggested that the workers resisted their tyranny through their own innate heroism, just as their own labor and ingenuity had revived the fortunes of the winery. In addition, one of the most interesting scene was a final scene compresses with mythical power the themes of the film. The red color of the landscape, introduced through the unforgettable image of a solar eclipse, is a searing reflection of the violence and bloodshed in the struggle against the Japanese. However, it is also a reminder of the characters' love of life, passion and spiritual freedom. By chanting a children's rhyme to send off his mother's soul into her next life, Douguan reminds the audience that true heroes never really die; they are immortalized in legends to have their lives of passion, boldness, and freedom recounted and emulated.
Throughout the movie Red Sorghum there is extensive use of color symbolically in shots and sequences. In fact, it is used so heavily that entire frames are made up by slightly different shades of the same color. This is most readily seen in the ending scene when the sun is eclipsed by the moon and everything turns the same shade of red except for the yellow sun. This image is highly associated with communism and other parts of the film help to cement a procommunist and nationalistic theme within the film. For example earlier in the film, the rejection of the term and idea of boss is an example. Going back to the use of color in the film, whenever there is a scene showing the workers laboring there is an oversaturation of the yellow gold color. Same with at night when it is heavily blue and most figures are darkened as to make it difficult to distinguish the characters. This heavy handed style of color use is almost too much because it makes distinguishing what is occurring in the scene hard.
Another shocking aspect in the movie was the rough way sexuality was handled. The grandfather of the narrator comes off as a brute that for all intents and purposes kidnapped and raped Jiu’er. While the scenes are not explicitly shown through the use of multiple cutaways of rustling sorghum, the implications is that is definitely does not bring me to empathize with the characters or to even understand them and their thought process. In the end, this is very important because it makes the sacrifice at the end of the film less powerful.
One of the more noticeable features of Yimou Zhang's film "Red Sorghum" is the profuse use of colored filters, especially red filters. The color red has two vastly different meanings in this film. On the one hand, the deep red color of the dusty landscape and the unforgettable solar eclipse with the sun and clouds looking almost like flames in the sky symbolize the violence and bloodshed during the Japanese raid. The blood-like color isn't even a very pretty red. It's a very musky and dull color which makes the whole atmosphere of the film somewhat unsettling (I kinda felt that way anyways). It's almost as if the film screen itself is painted with a thin layer of blood foreshadowing the soon to come terror and violence of the Japanese attack. On the other hand, the deep red sorghum plant fields, Jiu'er's red wedding dress, and the red sorghum wine all portray a completely opposite meaning for the color red that is passion and freedom. The red sorghum leaves swaying in the wind as Jiu'er and her to-be husband have sexual intercourse symbolize the opposition from traditional boundaries and also serves to evoke a sense of passion, love, and desire. The heavy drinking of the red wine also shows a display of basking in freedom as they have fun and get drunk. Although both interpretations of the color red differ so drastically, I believe that both have very strong and very valid meanings in this film.
After doing a little research about the director, Yimou Zhang, I found that during his childhood, Zhang grew up through many hardships as he had to survive through the Chinese Civil war in the 20th century. His tough childhood may be a reason he created this film, to show how the Chinese people can stand and fight through any and all kinds of adversity that's thrown at them. In fact, I found that many of his films seem to be laced around this theme of Chinese resilience. It's not always abnormal for artists to base their projects on events in their lives. But it makes me think about all the other films that have been produced and how much of those films reflect the creator's lives... It's a completely irrelevant and random topic but that's just what this film made me think about.
On another note, this movie felt like a new experience with all the extreme playing and switching of colors. Although the colors may have added meaning to the film, it distanced me from the film as those sudden changes in color constantly pulled me back into reality, and thus kept making me view the film more analytically rather than being completely immersed in it. But perhaps that was intended. A lot of Yimou Zhang's films do focus on the resilience of the Chinese, as I stated before. Maybe Zhang wants us to focus on these bigger themes rather than just viewing the film as a means for entertainment.
Zhang Yimou’s “Red Sorhum” illustrates a young woman’s life working on a distillery for sorghum liquor. I had few things that I was not able to understand clearly throughout the movie. It is narrated by the main character’s grandson. I thought it is interesting how the whole story is narrated by the woman’s grandson, but he is never shown in this film. I did not understand why it should be narrated by someone who is not even shown in the film throughout the whole story. Also, I did not get the purpose of this film. I first thought it is about a love story between the narrator’s grandparents, but suddenly it talks about how good wine was created by an accident, and lastly it moves to talk about Japanese invasion. There was a sudden tension and unexpected sad ending at the end of the film. I didn’t get the theme of the film due to these complicated unconnected stories. I was able to relate this film to “Fist of Fury” when the Japanese Army suddenly showed up toward the end. In both movies, it showed how Chinese people were treated unfavorably and they both represented Chinese anger toward those bad treatments from foreigners. Also, I noticed the color of the film was interesting. The color of the film was reddish and yellowish throughout the whole film. I do not know whether this is on purpose to indicate that it is a flashback or because it is an old movie, but it was an interesting point of the movie. Even though it was difficult to understand the purpose of the film, it was still an interesting film that contained Chinese culture and history throughout the story.
Red Sorghum is the symbolic melodrama, scenic, romantic and violent that appeared in the early years of the cinema. The fact that it was made in 1988, and shot in China in CinemaScope and color, doesn't make it a modern film. There is a strength in the simplicity of this movie, in the almost fairy tale level of its images and the shocking suddenness of its violence, that Hollywood in its sophistication has lost. Red Sorghum has no desire to be subtle, or muted. The movie wants to splash its passionate colors all over the sheer visual impact of the film is curvaceous. If the story is first naive and then instructive which is the film's charm.
The movie "Red Sorghum" directed by Zhang Yimou, is well known as 5th generation film. Beginning in the mid-late 1980s, the rise of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers brought increased popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. The Fifth Generation films share a common rejection of the socialist-realist tradition worked by earlier Chinese filmmakers in the Communist era.
What is special about this movie is that throughout the movie audience could notice that the screen is mostly red colored. After watching movie, people would say something like, it was a red-movie. The red color consistently appeared throughout the whole movie. It is assumed that red represent some significant meaning. Red is the color of Chinese people itself. It represents their strong will and vitality and also the indomitable resistance towards the Japanese.
Later in the film, the Japanese attack the town. They make Chinese people to destroy their own sorghum farm and deprive their living space. They all killed those who tried to rebel. Their spilled blood and burning farm reminds the color of red again.
The film itself contains simple story however, the symbolism and ideal meaning in the movie is very significant. Not only the color red, but also the traditional song that characters sing, and the instruments that are used for the BGM, emphasizes the cultural aspect of china.
Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" was a film that was made based on Mo Yan's novel. Honestly, in my opinion, because of so much Chinese material in this film, it was extremely hard to understand compared to the ones we watched in the class. The films had so many Chinese material. However, Chinese's traditional music, custom and feature were very strong from the beginning.
The movie's flow goes along with Jiu'er's life from Jiu'er getting sold to a leper and how she gets married to him to dying at the end. Even it seemed very complicated and hard to understand the concept of film while I was watching the film, I got it after I saw the film which was describing how simple sufferings are in life and how as suffering gets bigger the simpler the life gets. This film seems to explain life very well how she gets traded to a leper and falls in love with a worker, get a son, and how she dies vainly.
Also, the color red in this film seem very symbolic. In one scene, they play in red clothes on red sorghum and how they make red liquor and use is to be against Japan. Japan's imperial flag's color is also red and red symbolizes how much Japanese made Chinese bleed. In addition, the ending was very sad which the son sings his mom away in red screen.
The film itself was very simple and symbolizing people's life and how miserably simple and vain it is. This film made me to think if there are our lives existing in this world of war and fights.
Directed by Yimou Zhang, Red sorghum is adapted from Families of Red Sorghum by Mo Yan. It is narrated by the protagonist’s grandson, and shows the life of rural china during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In the movie, there are some elements that represent some Chinese traditional ceremonies and music, and color of red is shown thorough out the film. When the bride, who was forced to marry with a fifty-year old man by her parents, was carried in the sedan by bearers, they shook the sedan deliberately, and sang a song to make her suffer some hardship and give some fear for her future. During this ceremony, the carriers play some instruments, and it shows Chinese traditional folk culture and ceremony. Also, another example of Chinese culture is appeared when the liquor was made. Whenever wine is made, the workers appreciated the complete set of wine and did some ceremony as well. The movie also shows historical fact during the Japanese invasion in World War II, and shows the tragic life of people at that time. When they were attacked by Japanese army, they could not fight against Japanese army, but were controlled and treated inhumanly due to their poor equipment and low status. After the invasion, horrifying crimes were committed by force, but at the end of the movie, people’s reaction to the army’s brutality shows their willingness to overcome the feudal society and wanting for revenge. For my opinion, the most noticeable color red in the movie does not only symbolize the frustration of Chinese people from suffering, but also represents the hope for the future and freedom.
This movie 'Red sorghum', which is directed by Yimou Zhang contains many inner instinct of human. From the beginning, I could see pure happiness of worker, sadness of bride, sexual instinct, and revenge. To be specific, worker's celebrating marriage scene was very impressive. They used simple instrument and made delightful,joyful music with dance. Since this movie's historical background is era when Japanese attack China, I have to say that they are criticizing Japan's ruthless behavior. They emphasized what Japanese did to Chinese through violent scene which is cutting off alive human's skin.
This movie was also showing how country side people live by themselves without any strict rule. They looked like they were in no tough restriction and live very freely. Those people cooperate all together when there is any problem or hard works. When Japanese kee forcing their family, they all goes against Japan and fought with them.
I think there is some specific symbol of red sorghum such as success of their wine business because wine is red color. I also think the color 'Red' has a meaning that is going against Japan army. By the way, it is a great movie that well illustrated its historical time and lives of country side people.
Yimou's Red Sorghum showed a radically new side of the Chinese culture, much different from the Hong Kong Kung Fu films from Bruce Lee. Personally, it was much more raw and sensually invigorating than the Fists of Fury's adrenaline-fueled plot. There are several layers of this raw and human complexity throughout the film. One of the most recognizable feature of this is the overall color tonality of rouge/orange-red that evokes sensuality and sexuality, which later stands to represent the emotion of anger and the reaction from oppression from the Japanese. (passion-lust-anger-brutality), not to mention the obvious "Red Sorghum"'s title reference. There are also a lot of grey moral areas covered in this film. The predominant convention is the argument of rape. In a strong patriarchal society of China, women were of little concern in the eyes of law, much less the ethics. Jui'er is put through a several sexual encounters that are confusing to understand in a straightfoward way, but it does touch with the reality that is our world and led to a careful handling of the subjection of women, rather than a brutal one-sided male view. All in all, this was a very refreshing as well as a thoroughly thought-provoking piece of film and its to be enjoyed not so much during the viewing but afterwards from leaving the theater and cultivating the impact that "Red Sorghum" had left in you.
I realized some symbolic messages while I watched the movie called Red Sorghum. The sedan was a symbolic of ecstatic liberation. At the beginning of the scene, the young woman got married forcibly to 50 years old man who could be a leprous. This showed the woman was vulnerable and had no right to speak. Interior of sedan was full of darkness but exterior view was full of lusty males. When the woman opened a curtain slightly up, she could look a sweating, half-naked and muscular male body swaying in the dust. The following shot was the woman’s faintly dazed and desiring look. The director strongly showed female desire and sexuality through out this scene. Also, as the group of sedan-bearers jolting the woman, the tossed woman firstly looked like dizziness and fright. But then as this shot got prolonged, her confused look, heavy breathing, and distractedness gave a suggestion of sexual ecstasy. The red wine in the movie represented as passion, endurance, and intensity. The people in the winery farm were brave enough to fight against Japan. They didn’t submit under the Japan. They gathered together and revenged for one of their members. Even though Japanese interrupted winery farm, they didn’t give up to make the red wine. They started with wine and also ended with wine. I could learn the historical background and characteristic of China through the movie.
Red Sorghum is a family story labeling like magical realism, but it is all bloody set during the Japanese invasion. It begins as a memory of one’s grandmother being told by an unseen narrator. She was a poor girl who in the late 1920s was sent by her parents into unwanted marriage with a much older man who owned a winery. Like I pointed before, this movie is set of bloody and most of scene is taken in winery; red is the main color of this movie such as red sorghum, red dress, red chair etc. It seems like red is favorite color of Chinese so that it got much more attention with passion and desire under the hardness. I personally thought it was okay and sometimes very weird throughout the movie because there were so many scenes I can share my thoughts of the setting and character’s feeling in some way. However, I could not give a high appreciation because it contains too much topics taken in. At first, it lead me to feel pity for the young women, jiuer who had to do unwanted marriage, but after that she suddenly fall in love with random guy who was just a worker. Finally it went to as an anti-Japanese war movie. The direction of the movie was very confused, and movie just went like that which could not attract me at all. Lastly director uses a lot of compositions that may look striking to some but just self-conscious to others. At the sorghum scene, he took a broad flat landscape with a thin ribbon of sky at the top. The style of movie was very unique and it was too much so the story could not flow well especially the relationships among the people. It could have done light love story and have more historical points deeply.
The movie ‘Red Sorghum’ had a lot of red color in most of the scenes. Red colored scenes include film’s main object, wine, inside the carriage when the young woman was going to old man’s place, and the red background when the young woman was shot from Japanese soldiers. Normally, red color means good luck in China but in this movie, I think red color was seen as chaos because when the young woman was inside the carriage, she was not comfortable at and wine was used as a weapon towards Japanese soldiers.
In some scenes, we could see how Chinese people lived freely without any rules and how Chinese people were badly treated after colonization. They could cooperate together whenever they have hard time and overcome their situation. When Japanese soldiers restrained Chinese people from making wine, they didn’t give up and they rather used wine to fight against Japanese soldiers.
Zhang Yimou’s “Red Sorhum” is a symbolic, romantic and also violent film set in the late 1980s in China. Since it was set in this time outside of the states, this film is not a modern film which leads to the many unique features that is not present in many Hollywood films. One of the features that I feel separates this film from other modern films is the over dramatic artwork and the focus on details that fully depicts the character’s current mood and feelings. For example, the waving sorghum fields set a sensual image that illuminates the peasant life. Another example is how the eclipse sets a flush of red throughout the last scene which fully portrays the anger and violence that enveloped the entire scene. Next, I want to mention the sudden tone changes throughout the movies which changes from light to dark and happiness turning to horror as soon as the Japanese forces take over the fields. The simplicity of this story is what I feel allows for this sudden change of tone which is another reason that sets this film apart from Hollywood films. However, this film made me realize that films that do not follow the typical set up for modern films can also be very successful if not more notable then many Hollywood films.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Fist of Fury, this film portrays the animosity between the Japanese and the Chinese during World War II. Unlike Fist of Fury which showed the common discrimination towards the Chinese, Red Sorhum showed a much darker and heartless side of the Japanese through there relentless violence towards the peasant workers. The scalping scene in particular shows the audience the wrongful actions of nations during the time of war. However, Yimou does a great job justifying the Chinese peasants by praising their actions in revolting against the Japanese despite their lack of firepower/technology. The fact that simple peasants without any weaponry of any sort but there Red Sorhum attacking fully armed Japanese men for pure revenge sets the scene for an awe inspiring finale. In addition, the cinematography further amplifies the awe inspiring atmosphere.
Qiutong Meng
ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum
In the movie Red Sorghum, the director Yimou Zhang, wants to show us life prospect/landscape in the countryside. People who live in Shibali mountain, they have a free life, enjoy their work and hatred for the Japanese enemy, brave enough to avenge even if that may cause death. The director shows distinct characters. Jiuer is the portrayal image of Chinese traditional woman. Zhanao is a typical Shanbei man, who has loud voice, full of energy, burly, real human nature and brave enough to love and hatred. The part which I found interesting is, people sing a wine song to show divine worship to wine. Wine as catalyst, seems to regulate emotional and strengthening interpersonal relationships.
In the film, the director choose to bold RED, such as red dress, red scarf, red chair, red sorghum as well as bloody and red sun. It seems like red storm hit the audience attention with free, passion, desire, and joys of life under such a red background. In addition, we also identify Chinese traditional instruments like gong and suona, which is used in wedding ceremony in the past. Other cultural elements includes pride in the sedan chair and carried to husband’s home, and the marriage arranged by go-between, which means the couple haven’t seen each other until the married day. This situation is always arranged by parents in that feudal society. Therefore, that refers to gender discrimination to females. Wedding sometimes is like a trade.
From the structure of the house, decoration and furniture, donkey transportation, ways to make food, we can know the poor and undeveloped situation in the countryside.
The end part is about Japanese aggression in China. People are brave to avenge hatred although they don’t have advanced weapons. At that time, the film shows the poor power and low status of Chinese government. Japanese soldiers indulged in killing people and looting in China. People reactions shows patriotism and willing to be stronger and get ride of such feudal society. In my opinion, the RED also refers to red revolution in China, which Chinese fight against aggressive power and let China be stronger.
Ryan Chang
ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum is a film that portrays some issues that were important in China's history, namely the betrothal of women in marriages, the Confucian ideals of a patriarch rather than a matriarch, and the Japanese invasion of World War II. Jiu'er is forced to marry a man she does not want, but she takes over as the boss when he dies. This is in direct contrast to the old ideals of women being subservient, and most likely the Communist government at the time the film was made wanted to break away from the outdated values of the kingdoms and imperial rule. The film fits in with Chinese national cinema, and like Fist of Fury praises Chinese nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment. The terrible violence is more directly shown in Red Sorghum, however, such as the scene where Luohan is flayed on Japanese orders. The cinematography in the film could be described as elegant and artful, and the variety of shots and takes make for very interesting camerawork. The color red is heavily emphasized throughout the movie, and is even used in the title. The red may also refer to red Communist China or the blood spilled. The film was very intriguing, and although the beginning for me was very difficult to watch the latter section of the film glued my eyes to the screen.
I really disliked this movie and there were several elements of the movie that made me feel this way. To start, the movie really lacked cohesiveness. In the beginning the movie seemed to be heading in a romantic direction between Jiu'er and the chairman. However, that romance is pushed along in a very awkward fashion and then suddenly we find ourselves in an anti-Japanese war movie. Not that there is anything wrong with a movie switching directions, this movie just did it in such an abrupt fashion that it really detracted from the film as a whole. Everything seemed to be just added in as a plot device, without much explanation or reasoning behind it. For example, why did Louhan leave the winery? It just happens out of nowhere and then next we see he is captured and skinned by the Japanese. This doesn't serve a purpose except to showcase the brutality of the Japanese. It felt so forced that I didn't feel anything for the characters or their plight, I couldn't get into the movie. Not just Louhan, but with almost everything that happened.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that really bothered me about this movie was the 'romance,' if you can call it that, between Jiu'er and the chairman. Essentially we just see Jiu'er get raped once, and questionably raped two other times. The two times she slept with the chairman seemed so forced, not only upon Jiu'er, but also in the context of the film. The chairman grabs Jiu'er, who just sucked down a bowl of wine, and carried her into her room, then suddenly they have a child and all is grand. Nothing is fleshed out between the two, and the relationship lacks depth, which makes everything feel forced and unbelievable.
Seung Tae Kim
ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum is a 1987 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou, and because of Red Sorghum is what caused Yimou to be heralded as one of the greatest directors in Chinese cinema. Red Sorghum is a depiction of the rural poor in China during the Japanese conflict. The first thing to mention in Red Sorghum is the almost omnipresent depiction of the color red. Almost every shot in this film contains something of a red/orange color, most notably the shots containing our main female lead. I guess the redness not only takes after the title of the movie, it also is there to sort of illustrate the idea of the frustration felt by the people. Not only the frustration of the condition of the peasants, but also the frustration of the Chinese people being oppressed by the Japanese colonists.
The introduction of the Japanese imperialists marks the transition of the film. It is the point that indicates that the fate of the characters is now going to take a downward spiral. It transitions from a friendly and likeable camaraderie to brutal depictions of torture and war crimes.
The opening scene of the film Red Sorghum by Zhang Yimou, is a girl getting ready for the marriage. The scene after this is where she is in a sedan bound to her husband's place. In this scene, the setting of the film is well shown. There isn't much else to show for setting since the entire film takes place in Shibali which only has desert and sorghum. The film contains some erotic features at the beginning but right when the Japanese army invades, the film sussenly becomes grusome and violent. The particular example of this grusome feature is definitely the scene where the butcher's son has to peel the skin of Luohan who is his fellow country man. The film Red Sorghum has some ironic details as well. There are significant images with red color which Chinese think to be very good. Also, when the narration speaks, all the numbers in it are 'nine' which Chinese think to be a lucky number. However, as the film progresses it contains very depressing mood. So much so that everyone dies at the end except for Li and his son. The eclipse that passed at the end can be translated as new beginning because it covered entire 'old' sun and 'new' sun came out.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of long shots in this film. Some examples are when the kidnappers arrive over the hill of Shibali and the other is when brother Luohan leaves Shibali. However, most of the long shots were used to contain details for the setting of the film. The last shot of the film gave a very strong impression to the audience because the whole screen went red and mysterious eclipse was going on. Also, the facial expression of the protagonist, Li, was shown through middle shot and the expression stays very intense even during the eclipse which must not have been a normal phenomenon at the time.
Hyerin Cho
ReplyDelete"Red Sorghum" is stunningly beautiful to watch. It is presented as a folk story told by an unseen narrator, grandson of its two main characters. The opening scenes are calm and colourful,beginning with the lush sorghum fields, the pleasant singing of the sedan carriers, throwing in some amusing moments such as the narrator’s drunk grandfather spending three days sobering up in a liquor vat or urinating on the wine. The second half of the film takes away all the pleasantness. The Japanese arrive and round up the Chinese workers. By this point the narrator’s father has been born but the horrors he and his parents have to face are appalling. The violence is implied rather than seen but the film takes a very dark turn and culminates in Jiu’er wanting to take on the might of the Japanese army. The film leaves behind the romance and rural idyll its opening reels promise, plunging us into the horrors of war. That final scene is powerful with the narrator’s grandfather and father standing together beneath a red eclipse. The red color is significant in ths film. It shows the color red—of the sorghum crop, the wine, the Chinese bridal dress, and blood—permeates the film. The red setting sun that ends the film might represent the flag of the Japanese conquerors, or simply the inevitable shortness of every human life. This film also contains contradictions. Containing darkly comic elements, it is also a violent film; the villagers treat each other violently and the men treat women violently, but their violence pales compared to their treatment at the hands of the Japanese army. This film directly shows the chinese culture and history.
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ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum, directed by Jang Yimou, explicitly portrays the lusty peasant life with beautiful, Ansel Adams-like shots of landscape; but, behind the robust vitality of countrymen rests the painful history of China during the war against Imperial Japan. Throughout the film, director Jang Yimou attempts to deliver the messages to the viewers through different elements such as rich cinematography and camera work.
ReplyDeleteThe dynamic color scheme the director adopts is evident from the beginning scene of the film in which Jiu’er, sitting in the sedan, looks straight into the camera. The striking red overtone in this scene portrays injustice and suffering of females in the highly patriarchal society. Similarly, in the final scene, the husband, boldly standing with his son, looks directly at the camera. Again, director Jang Yimou uses even stronger crimson color to portray anguish and dejection after the fight. The distinguished red color one can find in the film including the first and last scene represents the theme of the film such as power, patriotism, and dynamics in China.
Furthermore, the unusual bottom-heavy shots of scenes are notable throughout the film. Conventionally, a long shot exhibits the full body of the character from head to toe, but director Jang Yimou repeatedly neglects part of the head in many of the scenes such as a laborer blowing a horn at the peak of the mountain or Jiu’er riding the mule back home. Also, oftentimes large proportion of a landscape shot is more focused on the ground than the sky. These highly unbalanced shots evoke unsettling emotions from the viewers which again remind us of the message he hopes to deliver in the film. His attempt to provoke such feelings is also evident in cinematography. In the scene in which Jiu’er spends her first night with her ill husband, the director repeats the sequence shots of the outside landscape (blue tone) and interior of the house (red tone). Though he doesn’t explicitly show the scene of her and her husband together in a room, the director tries to demonstrate Jiu’er’s uneasiness by using the repetitive sequence of complimentary colors.
“Red Sorghum”
ReplyDeleteThere are various examples of Instinct of human natures are revealed in this film. Bandit who tried to rape Jiu'er, father who sells his daughter for money, relationship between Jiu'er and Zhanao, action after Zhanao is drunken, etc. are examples of people who does as they feels like. The movie portrays human nature as neither good nor evil.
A Reddish color is shown throughout the film and it becomes clearly red at the end. The color “red” symbolizes many things such as nationalism, romance, and bloody massacre by Japanese.
Simply the color “red” symbolize life, and I believe the director of the movie want to show what the life is. Only thing this movie left me was futility; I felt that the movie was just listing events happened throughout Jiu'er’s life, there is no meaning to it, just go with the flow.
Sound in the Red Sorghum plays a very important part in emphasizing both plot and character emotions. For example, in the beginning of the film, the wedding parade had a very happy feel to it because of the chatter going on amongst the men and the music from the instruments. When the jostle of the carriage happened, we see the inside of the sedan as dark and the girl obviously feeling unwell from the movement. But the outside of the sedan is bright and merry, displaying a distinct contrast to the feeling of marriage that she is experiencing. When one of the men finally hear her cries, they stop the movements and an abrupt silence follows the procession. This eerie silence foreshadows what kind of a marriage life she will be leading.
ReplyDeleteThese abrupt sound and light distinctions portray the girl's feelings about the marriage very well because she is marrying a 50 year old leprous man when she is young herself. The film does not explicitly say how the marriage was arranged but it can be assumed that the girl was unwilling and so her dark feelings about this marriage is a stark contrast to the bright exterior of the wedding sedan.
Red Sorghum
ReplyDeleteI don’t really know what to say about this movie, Red Sorghum directed by Zhang Yimou. I don’t dislike it or anything but I just find it particularly different from most of the modern films of its time. Unlike many other films that use various color contrast to amplify the subtle changes in characters and scenes, Yimou mainly focus on the color red; it’s even suggested in the movie title. The red-shaded contrast throughout the film makes me feel disoriented as it is being splashed all over the screen. It almost seems set up for a horror movie. There were two scenes that I wanted to mention which Yimou greatly emphasize upon with the redness, I believe. The first scene was the very first scene of the film where the main woman, Jiu, was being carried on a sedan chair to meet her newly wedded husband. The men carrying Jiu were swaying the sedan back in forth and wildly singing and dancing around as Jiu, in a womb-like interior, pants and gasps unsettlingly. The shots of Jiu during this scene were all coated in red and with all the men carrying her half-naked, the scene just felt creepy to me. And also quite disturbing because I think this scene was supposedly portraying the sexually desires of the men, but it didn’t register through me. The other scene I wanted to talk of is noticeably the last scene. Yimou literally flushed the screen in red as the eclipse sets and the battle of the peasants and Japanese armed soldiers ended. I thought it was unique way to end the movie as the red symbolize the anger and violence of the peasants.
Red Sorghum, directed by Zhang Yimau, is one of the more bizarre and unsettling films I have seen. The film lacks a clear sense of direction from the beginning of the film, with a displaced, faceless, and nameless voice providing the driving narration of the film and no clear visual shots of the actors until several minutes into the opening sequences. No introduction or reason to engage with the characters is given. Instead we are thrown into a crude, stark landscape with boorish behavior that mimics the setting. The characters are as mean as the landscape, with the carrying men taunting the helpless bride to be and tossing her about in the sedan because she refuses to sing to them. Even later in the film, Jiu’er is raped with little forethought or ceremony. Death and brutality and the deepest unplesantries of human existence are all exposed in the film. The harshness of peasant life was conveyed through the actions of the characters. Conversation was a luxury; these people survived solely focusing on subsistence.
ReplyDeleteThe film’s strength was in it’s visual directing. The shots of the sorghum fields were breathtaking and the entire palate of the film consisted of the same color tones, gold, red, and other warm tones. The sorghum fields added beauty and depth to an otherwise humorless existence. During several sorghum field scenes, there was a prominent amplified rustling sound as the wind whistled through the dry stalks. Particularly in the chasing scene between Jiu’er and the chair carrier, the sorghum provided the white noise and cover for the illicit deed. Even her father was unaware of what happened during her brief departure from the paved road. In the sorghum fields, men act upon their crudest fantasies. Sadistic Japanese soldiers even carry out the brutal, painful death of Luohan in the sorghum field. The sorghum field represents the gap between normal existence and the unimaginable.
Yimou Zhang, the director of “Red Sorghum,” created his film in a coherent matter, combining the visual elements to the story. Zhang has successfully drawn the vigorous life of countryside in China, through adding selective amounts of mysterious colors and distinct folk music. Although there are many sudden attacks and situations that occur, the film flows in a simplistic manner through Zhang’s use of filming skills. From the beginning to the end, the events follow up through narrator speaking to the audience, suggesting that “Red Sorghum” is a twice-told fable. This tale telling effect makes audience to feel that the story is true, depicting the real side of Chinese life during late 1920s. Moreover, the cheaply made-fast shifts from scenarios to another help the viewers to visualize the wild, dramatic life changes during the time. The continuity of the conquers and fights, within the use of background music, adds intensity to the story. The loud drum beats and men-singing voices shape the intense atmosphere. For an example, in the beginning of the story where Jiu'er is sent to the marriage, the men were singing in a very loudly manner, making the girl dizzy and sick. The intensity of the drum beats also built intimate atmosphere, foreshadowing unexpected upcoming forces. Furthermore, Chinese red is a noticeable color in the film. In fact, the use of color both dominates and unifies the story of events all together. The color of red shapes the mood of extreme madness, feeling, life force, and revenges that fit well to “Red Sorghum.” At the end of the film, where the Chinese villagers and Jiu’er is found dead, the screen is completely covered with red, showing the anger and the dead-blood of Chinese people. Although “Red Sorghum,” is far from a modern and sophisticated film, Zhang has successfully directed the film with symbolic quality of images and visual elements.
ReplyDeleteEunice Won
Jae Young Rim
ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum
I think this movie contains two genres: romance, and Anti-Japanese. I was able to find the romance part when Jiu'er met the true love instead of the real husband who bought her from her father. Anti-Japanese was seen when Shibali people fought against crucial Japanese. However, combination of these genre disturbed me to focus on the movie because genre has changed so abruptly without specific explanation about those chages.
In addition, this movie shows social circumstances in China of that era. Jiu'er was very dutiful to her husband eventhough her social status was higher.In this movie, Jiu'er represent typical Chinese women of that time period. One more charateristic of this movie distinct from other movie was color choices. Director decided to put the red color in every single scene. At first time I couldn't find what this color meaning; however, on the later scene when Japanese appeared, I figured out that color red means the fury of Chinese against Japanese.
The film Red Sorghum is one of the best movie that represents traditional china movie as well as china culture and own color. In China, their symbolic color is red and they believe that color red brings luck to them. In this movie, color red is shown by all running time of the movie. For instance, it seems to me almost every element in the movie is red such as a handcart, fire, red wine, and the room that decorated by red color. At this point, red illustrates that positive color. Later, after Japanese kills Lou Huan cruelly, blood just shows up a lot through the screen, in addition when people try to fight with Japanese army for revenge, there are a lot of blood that makes sorghum to have red color and sky is red too. At this time, red seems like miserably red giving us kind of feeling that sad beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIn Red Sorghum, there are many elements that represents china own custom. First of all, pre-arranged married is hard to see at these days. Second, they admire God on the special day to celebrate their wine business. Third, China was another huge communist party followed by Soviet Union at that historic era. In the movie, Jiu'er announce to worker that everyone will share the one. In addition, it seems to me surprised that workers does not have any problem with Jiu'er, even if she is female. Red Sorghum also illustrates how chines have suffered by poor at that period. Jiu'er's father just exchange his daughter with one donkey, which is impossible to imagine now. The music is consisted of traditional china instrument. The film is narrated from the point of view of the protagonist’s grandson, which makes movie more realistic and vital.
There are many movies that don't explain strongly what's going on in the movie so that many viewers would wonder what the movie's theme is. 'Red sorghum' is one and its reason is simple. The scenario is not a matter. What the matter is to describe the soul of Chinese which lived along with Chinese people and will survive the cruel and inhuman Japanese invasion. The movie tried really hard to show the Chinese rural areas beautifully even though the movie's entire scenes are red and yellow. Fashion coordinator and director must considered really hard to pick clothes that can be natural with the red-and-yellow-only-frame. I should admit that the views on the movie were fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the lack of explain made this movie's first half boring and first half's scene had few artistic view. I should have been misunderstood that I am watching documentary film or something if there was no second half of the film. Even if the ordinary life is in the film, the scene could be more intriguing than this by using more dynamic camera movement or some sort. The controlling the quantity of explanation could be the most troublesome and delicate part that movies from the its original novel should have to overcome and 'Red sorghum' could not overcome this.
With all its defects, however, the movie is worth to watch because of the last scene, which symbolizes the wounded bleeding China can raise again. The last scene, the child is singing bearing his tears in front of his mother and red sun, which is painting everything red, is raising on the wildly waving sorghum.
Red Sorghum a film by Zhang Yimou portrays the struggle of the peasant life within the Chinese-Japanese war. Jiu'er the main character, is the central aspect of the story and viewers are brought into her life story, although its narrated by her grandson. Yimou also shows how certain people rise from a struggle and come out stronger. The true life struggle of the lower classes of the Chinese population is shot through many aspects that other directors have not used before. When the Japanese prescience is discovered within the Sorghum fields, the peasants attempt to rise up against them, which comes with a price of loss of life. The shame that Luohan goes through is very great to his values, as the the infiltration of Japanese forces equals the Chinese to follow suit and in exchange forget their own. The Chinese show the courage of commitment and numbers.
ReplyDeleteYimou also uses the scenery of the farmlands, that most audiences in that generation would not be exposed to. With mostly scenery angles, focusing on surrounding environment, as well as wide background shots, the viewer sees the whole experience of Eastern China that is never exposed. The Sorghum fields also carry a special kind of symbolism within this film, it represents the hope of the peasants. The Sorghum is plentiful within this region, and so are the peasants. When uttillized properly great results are achieved, although they never truly die out, they are always re-growing and expanding, showing the never ending loss of hope.
To be honest I am still no quite sure about how to feel about “Red Sorghum”. On the one hand I really liked the visual style of the movie. Firstly because the obvious redness through out the movie made the style unique. I also liked the fact that sometimes between all the redness Zhang Yimou added shots, which were overly blue. Those shots were a nice contrast to the red and I felt they were needed for the eyes to recover from all the intensity.
ReplyDeleteI also liked that the colors fit well into the dry desert-like setting of the plot. The landscapes and the nature were nicely captured in this movie and that is something I really appreciate in movies. Additionally in some shots the silhouettes of the sorghum field shadowed the strong sunlight. In many ways it reminded me of the light in Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”, letting me to think that maybe Zhang Yimou was also experimenting with the visuals throughout the movie.
On the other hand probably influenced by to many Hollywood love stories, at first I thought the film “Red Sorghum” was going to be a romantic one. Nevertheless I soon figured out that this was not going to be the case. Interestingly enough though, it was not apparent to me in which direction the plot was heading. Was it going to be a movie about suppressed women, the life story of the illegitimate child or a story about a how the poor became rich? For some reasons, still not entirely clear to me, I was disappointed of the (political) direction the plot did take. It was as if the whole story was slowly built up with a lot of effort and detail, just for the hopes and assumptions made with it, to be destroyed once again by some evil. “The evil” in this case meaning the Japanese invasion. Even though the turn of events where not predictable, the biggest impact the plot had on me was a dissatisfying one.
Amongst the rolling waves of lush grass, nature overwhelms the initial background of Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum. A distinct aspect of this period film is the coloring, where red is a significant note. The setting included a winery, where the particular liquid encompasses the intense coloring. Across the plot, cinematography carries the audience in noticing the wide view of the countryside in eastern China. A consistent tone initially where a woman is being sent into an arranged marriage, but several overlaps do occur. Director Zhang Yimou ultimately notes how nature is a key point of this film, but one does notice the sudden change in emotion. Where nature signifies the calmness, there is an opposite factor that derails the true meaning of nature. The simple life of peasants working in a winery, where their lives can be corrupted by thieves and adultery, explains the negative sentiment to society. Yet, Zhang Yimou instills a historic factor where the audience notices the tragic side behind the plot. Although the cultural facet of Red Sorghum is strongly featured, one interesting factor is once again how there are long shots featuring peasants working within the field. This connects nature to the horrors that ruins the serene feature of it.
ReplyDeleteAt a particular scene, the audience can see how the peasants in China are being colonized by the imperialistic forces of Japan. Then, the brutal acts the Imperial Japanese army imposes upon the peasants points the strong sentiment Zhang Yimou had against the past Japanese rule of China. This poses with the violence against nature act, where such horrifying crimes are committed within the realms of a quiet field. Ultimately, the characters featured in this story explain the treatment of the Chinese by the Imperial Japanese Army. An example to how nature being mistreated by the people is a key note in this film and Zhang Yimou utilizes how people in general are dangerous animals that ruin their own living environment.
In the film “Red Sorghum”, the director’s intention was well described. As the name of the movie depicts, general atmosphere and background are reddish. It amplified the film’s tension and cruelty even more especially when the Chinese slaughterman was forced to peel off Luohan’s skin. The odd situation when Jiuer took over the town seemed ideal compared to the Chinese Confucian culture back then. The rural and carefree peasants making wine was also peaceful until Japanese army invaded the town. The transition takes place when the Japanese army forced the peasants to snap the sorghums. They oppressed the Chinese people and treated them inhumanely. However, with their poor equipment, the peasants rebel against Japanese force. This represented national cinematic elements. I think the wine was a symbol for their ritual and spirit against unwelcomed invader. The scene of Jiuer dropping the wine pot when she got shot by Japanese force revealed the peasants’ broken and shattered hope. It was a tragic ending compared to “Fist of Fury”, but more realistic.
ReplyDeletethe symbolism of red in the film is intense. The first use of it was Jiu'er's wedding, where the audience is introduced to the unwillingness of the bride, in addition to her lifting of the red veil even though she was told not to. The atmosphere of the wedding is ominous and signifies trouble in the later part of the film. Another use of red is the symbolism of the red soghum wine, which plays an important part in cementing the unity of the Chinese against the Japanese as they defiantly drink the red wine and vow to avenge Luohan. The last significant use of red is the scene where the narrator's grandfather's eyes only see red, although it was attributed to the presence of the sun. It signifies the bloodshed in the movie, and the strong theme of political struggle.
ReplyDeleteThe scenes of nature are intriguing as well. The soghum field is described to be "wild" and "haunted" by the narrator, and the highlight comes during the scene where Jiu'er and the chair man acknowledged their desire for each other, where the soghum is filmed in close proximity and detail to depict the complicatedness and passion in the relationship. During Jiu'er's official nuptial night, the moon also shifts from being a full moon to a half moon, giving a mysterious feeling. The last scene of the sun being covered by clouds during Douguan's mourning for his mother is also especially memorable. The movie ends with an unexpected eclipse, as if signifying more unexpected events to unfold
One very interesting characteristic of this movie was the presence of the narrator who never showed up throughout the running time. The narrator is the grand child of Jiu'er, and this showed that the family has thrived even though one of the family member is killed. To include my opinion on this, it can be said that it was the whole family that died and the ones who remained alive are the father and son. However, they lived to deliver the stories to next generations. The overall color of the shots was red, and it gave very Chinese flavour on the movie. I also feel like the color red was a sign of Jiu'er's rather unhappy life that started with being sold to a leprous man and was ended just like that by Japanese soldiers' gun shots. At the end, where the sorghum field is all crashed and dead bodies lied down with fire, the solar eclipse was a very well matched scene. The eclipse actually strengthened the red color of the film and the movie just colored the scenes with red. I felt it was a very brutal scene because it seemed like the scene was covered with blood.
ReplyDeleteTalking about the ideology hidden in the movie, it is said that the movie was actually praising the communism. Come to think of it, the color of communism is known to be red if my memory serves me right. Also, there were lots of signs of communism, such as the laborer killing his boss, the woman leading, and also laborer and the boss being treated equally. It certainly was good to see people getting along with without any prejudices based on their titles. Also, I agree that the fight ordered by Jiu'er is quite reasonable because Japanese had to be paid for what they have done. But as a consequence, they paid too much just to repay to Japanese soldiers. Nevertheless, the presence of the narrator seems like it is trying to show how the life can be carried on and to a better position.
Red Sorghum
ReplyDeleteWithout basic information of this movie, I claim that this movie has a lot of aspects to dissect.
Made in 1988, Red Sorghum has anticipated in making China’s early 19th century of which its country life culture, rituals, lifestyles have been shown. With addition of radical and extreme sense of blood and cruelty, China’s country life culture has no place to hide itself.
Throughout the movie, it was full of assumptions, questions, and unanswered sequences. What first came as a mysterious was the first 40 minutes of the movie. So getting the idea of what is happening in terms of marriage of narrator’s grandmother, I could not find the reason why she said literally nothing for first 40minutes of the movie. There were long takes, hand-held panning, zoom-ins, wide angles, long panning shots of carriers, and a grandmother, but the grandmother did not say anything but just a short of moaning.
Then in terms of movie sequences, I wish I could classify this movie as a documentary of a journey of one tragic family. The narrator first told what would happen to his grandparents, so the tension has become dull and spoiled. Also the jump from one scene to another has been too radical that the gap was incomprehensible (maybe the subtitle also played key role in making more incomprehensible).
Listing other wondering questions, the grandmother (seemingly very young and beautiful) has changed her lethargic, sad, quiet attitudes toward active, energetic, dedicated character very suddenly without showing a motivated cause. Also, when Japanese conquered the sorghum field, there were not subtitles for Japanese actors’ speaking. It could have been better if there were subtitles. In addition, just in very general sense, there were not adequate flows of conversation among people. Furthermore, the absence of conversation did not outstand the silent acting of characters.
Last but not least, I did not fully get the sense of number 9. Ninth day of September in Luna calendar, ninth child of a family, 9 years later, and the age of narrator’s father is nine, etc. I was not able to comprehend the power of nine, nor connect the importance of number nine to any of Chinese historical backgrounds.
The internationally known film, Red Sorghum was directed by Zhang Yimou. The film focuses on a woman who is married into the business of a distillery. One characteristic that can be found in this film is the negative characteristics of men and the strong feminist attitude of Jiu’er. Most women during that time had barely any rights due to the Confucius upbringings. In the beginning of the movie, Jiu’er is the obedient daughter that is put into an arranged marriage by her father. It is unfortunate for her that she has no power to refuse the arranged marriage since it aids her father’s financial needs. Later on, the film shows Jiu’er’s father’s harsh criticism of her husband’s gift, thus demonstrating the father’s selfishness. Jiu’er is deeply angered that her own father treats her with no respect and in result claims to never visit him again. Another moment where Jiu’er shows her strong personality is when she takes over the distillery. Even though she doesn’t know much, she learns from others and takes charge of the business. Her determination and leadership helps the distillery survive the hard times.
ReplyDeleteDirector Zhang Yimou is internationally known for his talented skills of colorful cinematography. When the brewery was shown in the film, the color of brown and yellow were constantly used in the backgrounds. This yellow tint allowed the atmosphere of the whole film to have a vintage and fairytale display. This matched the story-telling aspect of the film perfectly. The intense richness of the yellow color and the vibrant display of the sun helped give the story an unrealistic impression. Also the red color was intensely used in the last parts of the film. Since the last parts of the film had an immense amount of blood shed and death, the red color amplified the sorrow of war and death. The red tint almost looked like the surviving characters were covered in blood. This depiction makes it seem like the characters were covered in their comrade’s blood. Covered with their friend’s blood, this shows the character’s sadness of loosing loved ones.
Red Sorghum
ReplyDeleteThe point and the purpose of this movie are ambiguous. At the end of the movie, it makes the audience to be on self-question mode. The movie seems to be here and there, and sometimes i do not know why the characters act in that way such as peeing in the wine jar, and for that, she gets sexually attracted. Also, there are somehow romance, and historical Japanese hostility. Thus half of the movie, I thought it is about romantic movie but the end it is just about the Japanese cruelty. It seems like all those stories are disconnected and it is hard to consider this movie as completed movie to publish.
As the title, the movie contains red element and right at the end where the "grandfather" has a long shot, the entire screen was totally red. The movie respected audience because it made audiences to expect cruel scenes but it went over them. I wonder why the story has to be told by the grandson, although we have no information about the story teller in the movie.
The red sorghum set a story in the barren wilderness around the north-eastern Gaomi Township, Zhang departed from the lush southern landscapes that Beijing preferred to see extolled on screen. Zhang who is a director also depicted his protagonists in a far from idealised light, as he permitted them to indulge their basest instincts, right down to urinating in the wine vats. Moreover, by allowing the only avowedly Communist character to perish at the hands of the invading imperialists, I think that Zhang also suggested that the workers resisted their tyranny through their own innate heroism, just as their own labor and ingenuity had revived the fortunes of the winery.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, one of the most interesting scene was a final scene compresses with mythical power the themes of the film. The red color of the landscape, introduced through the unforgettable image of a solar eclipse, is a searing reflection of the violence and bloodshed in the struggle against the Japanese. However, it is also a reminder of the characters' love of life, passion and spiritual freedom. By chanting a children's rhyme to send off his mother's soul into her next life, Douguan reminds the audience that true heroes never really die; they are immortalized in legends to have their lives of passion, boldness, and freedom recounted and emulated.
Throughout the movie Red Sorghum there is extensive use of color symbolically in shots and sequences. In fact, it is used so heavily that entire frames are made up by slightly different shades of the same color. This is most readily seen in the ending scene when the sun is eclipsed by the moon and everything turns the same shade of red except for the yellow sun. This image is highly associated with communism and other parts of the film help to cement a procommunist and nationalistic theme within the film. For example earlier in the film, the rejection of the term and idea of boss is an example. Going back to the use of color in the film, whenever there is a scene showing the workers laboring there is an oversaturation of the yellow gold color. Same with at night when it is heavily blue and most figures are darkened as to make it difficult to distinguish the characters. This heavy handed style of color use is almost too much because it makes distinguishing what is occurring in the scene hard.
ReplyDeleteAnother shocking aspect in the movie was the rough way sexuality was handled. The grandfather of the narrator comes off as a brute that for all intents and purposes kidnapped and raped Jiu’er. While the scenes are not explicitly shown through the use of multiple cutaways of rustling sorghum, the implications is that is definitely does not bring me to empathize with the characters or to even understand them and their thought process. In the end, this is very important because it makes the sacrifice at the end of the film less powerful.
One of the more noticeable features of Yimou Zhang's film "Red Sorghum" is the profuse use of colored filters, especially red filters. The color red has two vastly different meanings in this film. On the one hand, the deep red color of the dusty landscape and the unforgettable solar eclipse with the sun and clouds looking almost like flames in the sky symbolize the violence and bloodshed during the Japanese raid. The blood-like color isn't even a very pretty red. It's a very musky and dull color which makes the whole atmosphere of the film somewhat unsettling (I kinda felt that way anyways). It's almost as if the film screen itself is painted with a thin layer of blood foreshadowing the soon to come terror and violence of the Japanese attack. On the other hand, the deep red sorghum plant fields, Jiu'er's red wedding dress, and the red sorghum wine all portray a completely opposite meaning for the color red that is passion and freedom. The red sorghum leaves swaying in the wind as Jiu'er and her to-be husband have sexual intercourse symbolize the opposition from traditional boundaries and also serves to evoke a sense of passion, love, and desire. The heavy drinking of the red wine also shows a display of basking in freedom as they have fun and get drunk. Although both interpretations of the color red differ so drastically, I believe that both have very strong and very valid meanings in this film.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing a little research about the director, Yimou Zhang, I found that during his childhood, Zhang grew up through many hardships as he had to survive through the Chinese Civil war in the 20th century. His tough childhood may be a reason he created this film, to show how the Chinese people can stand and fight through any and all kinds of adversity that's thrown at them. In fact, I found that many of his films seem to be laced around this theme of Chinese resilience. It's not always abnormal for artists to base their projects on events in their lives. But it makes me think about all the other films that have been produced and how much of those films reflect the creator's lives... It's a completely irrelevant and random topic but that's just what this film made me think about.
On another note, this movie felt like a new experience with all the extreme playing and switching of colors. Although the colors may have added meaning to the film, it distanced me from the film as those sudden changes in color constantly pulled me back into reality, and thus kept making me view the film more analytically rather than being completely immersed in it. But perhaps that was intended. A lot of Yimou Zhang's films do focus on the resilience of the Chinese, as I stated before. Maybe Zhang wants us to focus on these bigger themes rather than just viewing the film as a means for entertainment.
Zhang Yimou’s “Red Sorhum” illustrates a young woman’s life working on a distillery for sorghum liquor. I had few things that I was not able to understand clearly throughout the movie. It is narrated by the main character’s grandson. I thought it is interesting how the whole story is narrated by the woman’s grandson, but he is never shown in this film. I did not understand why it should be narrated by someone who is not even shown in the film throughout the whole story. Also, I did not get the purpose of this film. I first thought it is about a love story between the narrator’s grandparents, but suddenly it talks about how good wine was created by an accident, and lastly it moves to talk about Japanese invasion. There was a sudden tension and unexpected sad ending at the end of the film. I didn’t get the theme of the film due to these complicated unconnected stories.
ReplyDeleteI was able to relate this film to “Fist of Fury” when the Japanese Army suddenly showed up toward the end. In both movies, it showed how Chinese people were treated unfavorably and they both represented Chinese anger toward those bad treatments from foreigners.
Also, I noticed the color of the film was interesting. The color of the film was reddish and yellowish throughout the whole film. I do not know whether this is on purpose to indicate that it is a flashback or because it is an old movie, but it was an interesting point of the movie. Even though it was difficult to understand the purpose of the film, it was still an interesting film that contained Chinese culture and history throughout the story.
Red Sorghum is the symbolic melodrama, scenic, romantic and violent that appeared in the early years of the cinema. The fact that it was made in 1988, and shot in China in CinemaScope and color, doesn't make it a modern film. There is a strength in the simplicity of this movie, in the almost fairy tale level of its images and the shocking suddenness of its violence, that Hollywood in its sophistication has lost.
ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum has no desire to be subtle, or muted. The movie wants to splash its passionate colors all over the sheer visual impact of the film is curvaceous. If the story is first naive and then instructive which is the film's charm.
The movie "Red Sorghum" directed by Zhang Yimou, is well known as 5th generation film. Beginning in the mid-late 1980s, the rise of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers brought increased popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. The Fifth Generation films share a common rejection of the socialist-realist tradition worked by earlier Chinese filmmakers in the Communist era.
ReplyDeleteWhat is special about this movie is that throughout the movie audience could notice that the screen is mostly red colored. After watching movie, people would say something like, it was a red-movie. The red color consistently appeared throughout the whole movie. It is assumed that red represent some significant meaning. Red is the color of Chinese people itself. It represents their strong will and vitality and also the indomitable resistance towards the Japanese.
Later in the film, the Japanese attack the town. They make Chinese people to destroy their own sorghum farm and deprive their living space. They all killed those who tried to rebel. Their spilled blood and burning farm reminds the color of red again.
The film itself contains simple story however, the symbolism and ideal meaning in the movie is very significant. Not only the color red, but also the traditional song that characters sing, and the instruments that are used for the BGM, emphasizes the cultural aspect of china.
Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" was a film that was made based on Mo Yan's novel. Honestly, in my opinion, because of so much Chinese material in this film, it was extremely hard to understand compared to the ones we watched in the class. The films had so many Chinese material. However, Chinese's traditional music, custom and feature were very strong from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteThe movie's flow goes along with Jiu'er's life from Jiu'er getting sold to a leper and how she gets married to him to dying at the end. Even it seemed very complicated and hard to understand the concept of film while I was watching the film, I got it after I saw the film which was describing how simple sufferings are in life and how as suffering gets bigger the simpler the life gets. This film seems to explain life very well how she gets traded to a leper and falls in love with a worker, get a son, and how she dies vainly.
Also, the color red in this film seem very symbolic. In one scene, they play in red clothes on red sorghum and how they make red liquor and use is to be against Japan. Japan's imperial flag's color is also red and red symbolizes how much Japanese made Chinese bleed. In addition, the ending was very sad which the son sings his mom away in red screen.
The film itself was very simple and symbolizing people's life and how miserably simple and vain it is. This film made me to think if there are our lives existing in this world of war and fights.
Directed by Yimou Zhang, Red sorghum is adapted from Families of Red Sorghum by Mo Yan. It is narrated by the protagonist’s grandson, and shows the life of rural china during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In the movie, there are some elements that represent some Chinese traditional ceremonies and music, and color of red is shown thorough out the film. When the bride, who was forced to marry with a fifty-year old man by her parents, was carried in the sedan by bearers, they shook the sedan deliberately, and sang a song to make her suffer some hardship and give some fear for her future. During this ceremony, the carriers play some instruments, and it shows Chinese traditional folk culture and ceremony. Also, another example of Chinese culture is appeared when the liquor was made. Whenever wine is made, the workers appreciated the complete set of wine and did some ceremony as well. The movie also shows historical fact during the Japanese invasion in World War II, and shows the tragic life of people at that time. When they were attacked by Japanese army, they could not fight against Japanese army, but were controlled and treated inhumanly due to their poor equipment and low status. After the invasion, horrifying crimes were committed by force, but at the end of the movie, people’s reaction to the army’s brutality shows their willingness to overcome the feudal society and wanting for revenge. For my opinion, the most noticeable color red in the movie does not only symbolize the frustration of Chinese people from suffering, but also represents the hope for the future and freedom.
ReplyDeleteThis movie 'Red sorghum', which is directed by Yimou Zhang contains many inner instinct of human. From the beginning, I could see pure happiness of worker, sadness of bride, sexual instinct, and revenge. To be specific, worker's celebrating marriage scene was very impressive. They used simple instrument and made delightful,joyful music with dance.
ReplyDeleteSince this movie's historical background is era when Japanese attack China, I have to say that they are criticizing Japan's ruthless behavior. They emphasized what Japanese did to Chinese through violent scene which is cutting off alive human's skin.
This movie was also showing how country side people live by themselves without any strict rule. They looked like they were in no tough restriction and live very freely. Those people cooperate all together when there is any problem or hard works. When Japanese kee forcing their family, they all goes against Japan and fought with them.
I think there is some specific symbol of red sorghum such as success of their wine business because wine is red color. I also think the color 'Red' has a meaning that is going against Japan army. By the way, it is a great movie that well illustrated its historical time and lives of country side people.
Yimou's Red Sorghum showed a radically new side of the Chinese culture, much different from the Hong Kong Kung Fu films from Bruce Lee. Personally, it was much more raw and sensually invigorating than the Fists of Fury's adrenaline-fueled plot. There are several layers of this raw and human complexity throughout the film. One of the most recognizable feature of this is the overall color tonality of rouge/orange-red that evokes sensuality and sexuality, which later stands to represent the emotion of anger and the reaction from oppression from the Japanese. (passion-lust-anger-brutality), not to mention the obvious "Red Sorghum"'s title reference.
ReplyDeleteThere are also a lot of grey moral areas covered in this film. The predominant convention is the argument of rape. In a strong patriarchal society of China, women were of little concern in the eyes of law, much less the ethics. Jui'er is put through a several sexual encounters that are confusing to understand in a straightfoward way, but it does touch with the reality that is our world and led to a careful handling of the subjection of women, rather than a brutal one-sided male view.
All in all, this was a very refreshing as well as a thoroughly thought-provoking piece of film and its to be enjoyed not so much during the viewing but afterwards from leaving the theater and cultivating the impact that "Red Sorghum" had left in you.
I realized some symbolic messages while I watched the movie called Red Sorghum. The sedan was a symbolic of ecstatic liberation. At the beginning of the scene, the young woman got married forcibly to 50 years old man who could be a leprous. This showed the woman was vulnerable and had no right to speak. Interior of sedan was full of darkness but exterior view was full of lusty males. When the woman opened a curtain slightly up, she could look a sweating, half-naked and muscular male body swaying in the dust. The following shot was the woman’s faintly dazed and desiring look. The director strongly showed female desire and sexuality through out this scene. Also, as the group of sedan-bearers jolting the woman, the tossed woman firstly looked like dizziness and fright. But then as this shot got prolonged, her confused look, heavy breathing, and distractedness gave a suggestion of sexual ecstasy.
ReplyDeleteThe red wine in the movie represented as passion, endurance, and intensity. The people in the winery farm were brave enough to fight against Japan. They didn’t submit under the Japan. They gathered together and revenged for one of their members. Even though Japanese interrupted winery farm, they didn’t give up to make the red wine. They started with wine and also ended with wine. I could learn the historical background and characteristic of China through the movie.
Red Sorghum is a family story labeling like magical realism, but it is all bloody set during the Japanese invasion. It begins as a memory of one’s grandmother being told by an unseen narrator. She was a poor girl who in the late 1920s was sent by her parents into unwanted marriage with a much older man who owned a winery. Like I pointed before, this movie is set of bloody and most of scene is taken in winery; red is the main color of this movie such as red sorghum, red dress, red chair etc. It seems like red is favorite color of Chinese so that it got much more attention with passion and desire under the hardness.
ReplyDeleteI personally thought it was okay and sometimes very weird throughout the movie because there were so many scenes I can share my thoughts of the setting and character’s feeling in some way. However, I could not give a high appreciation because it contains too much topics taken in. At first, it lead me to feel pity for the young women, jiuer who had to do unwanted marriage, but after that she suddenly fall in love with random guy who was just a worker. Finally it went to as an anti-Japanese war movie. The direction of the movie was very confused, and movie just went like that which could not attract me at all.
Lastly director uses a lot of compositions that may look striking to some but just self-conscious to others. At the sorghum scene, he took a broad flat landscape with a thin ribbon of sky at the top. The style of movie was very unique and it was too much so the story could not flow well especially the relationships among the people. It could have done light love story and have more historical points deeply.
The movie ‘Red Sorghum’ had a lot of red color in most of the scenes. Red colored scenes include film’s main object, wine, inside the carriage when the young woman was going to old man’s place, and the red background when the young woman was shot from Japanese soldiers. Normally, red color means good luck in China but in this movie, I think red color was seen as chaos because when the young woman was inside the carriage, she was not comfortable at and wine was used as a weapon towards Japanese soldiers.
ReplyDeleteIn some scenes, we could see how Chinese people lived freely without any rules and how Chinese people were badly treated after colonization. They could cooperate together whenever they have hard time and overcome their situation. When Japanese soldiers restrained Chinese people from making wine, they didn’t give up and they rather used wine to fight against Japanese soldiers.