Zhang Yimou is classified as one of the 5th generation directors (1) and one of the greatest. It is through Zhang’s movies that the westerners come to know the Chinese cinema (2). There are three special characters about Zhang’s movies. One is his use of color (1). The second is the exposure of daily life of ordinary Chinesel people (3); The third is about the hardships and struggle of women in China.
Ju Dou (1989) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991) are the two great movies by Zhang Yimou which reflect the bitterness, suffering and tragedy of Chinese women under the influence of Confucian thoughts adopted by the feudal rulers.
In his movies, through utilization of colors and ordinary life story, portrait of blooding Chinese women who are tortured and abused at the strict patriarchal society was placed before our eyes. In fact, Zhang himself had a miserable childhood(1). What happened in the movies are still happening in China. That is probably why Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern were banned in China at the first few years (4).
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Childhood hardship made Zhang Yimou very sympathy of poor people, especially rural women who live on the bottom of Chinese society. Chinese rural women are difficult to take breathe due to the suppression and oppression in the rigid Chinese patriarchal society. Ju Dou, I think, is a movie which is the most representative of Zhang Yimou, criticizing the unfair and brutal treatment of Chinese wemen.
The protagonist, Ju Dou (Gong Li), a beautiful young woman, is a new bride, bought by a dye-house owner, Yang Jinshan, an old man who already killed two ex wives for not giving birth to a son. According to the Confucian thought, there are three forms of unfilial conduct, of which the worst is to have no descendants. Since the main purpose for him to buy Ju Dou is to have her give birth to a son., he does not treat her as a human. During the day time, he uses her as the slave labor; at night he beats and tortures her because she cannot bear a child, even though he is impotent. I
The little town is quite beautiful. Life could be easy if Ju Dou were treated like a respective human and a wife with dignity. However, from generation to generation, women were regarded as men’s possession and the tools for family linage Ju Dou had lived like a slave everyday until he meets Yang Tianqing, the old man’s adopted nephew. Suppression and torture make Ju Dou no way to go but to rebel. She has found the happiness and safeness from Yang Tianqing and are in love with him.
Eventually, Ju Dou gave a birth to a baby boy. Despite the fact that the boy is not his real son, the old man is happy when the boy calls him daddy. For a moment, Ju Dou is happy because she has a son and that the old man is paralyzed and cannot beat her as he used to. However, she finally kills herself after she found out that Yang Tianbo was killed by his son. At end, Ju Dou set fire to burn all the dye factory. She cannot escape the cage of the feudal system (5). She can only die inside the cage.
The brilliant use of the color in this film gives a horrible portrait of the rural woman who is beatten, tortured and oppressed and who makes the challenge of the tradition. In the movie, there is no status for the woman who is treated like the farmed animals which can be sold and killed. The old man is the ruler and he is always right. He is impotent, but he can blame Ju Dou for not giving birth. He punishes, beats and tortures her for not bearing a baby. For the old man, the value of Ju Dou can be realized only if she can give birth to a son and she is the only one to be blamed for not giving birth.
It is very hard for us in western society to believe the story depicted in Zhang Yimou’ movies. It is true that the women have no respect according to Confucian thought. Confucius had a famous saying: “Only the woman and the villain are difficult to raise.” Chinese women have lived under Confucian influence for thousands of years. In today’s China, boys are still preferred to girls. Many girls are aborted even before she is born. As a result, China male and female ratio has been greater than 120:100 (6)
The old man can kill his first two wives simply because they could not give birth to a son. He could get away with double murders and still be recognized as a noble man in the society. He could freely beat and torture his wife. Ju Dou is like a thing she bought so that he can do whatever he wants in treating her. Even after the death of the old man, Ju Dou still cannot get the respect. At his funeral, she has to cry and pretend to be very sorrowful. After his death, she still has to be alone and cannot to get married with Tianqing. To add salt to the wound, her son strongly oppose her to be with Tianqing. At the end, Tianqing, his lover, is killed by their son. Ju Dou cannot accept this fact anymore and she chooses to burn down everything and herself. What a tragedy! From blood red scene of the movie, we can understand the hardship and the great pain Chinese women used to suffer. Suppression and oppression from the feudal system have destroyed the dream, love, family and everything of the women. Under this system, people fight, rebel and pursue humanity beauty with their life, despite the fact that they cannot change the fate of their life.
Raise the Red Lantern is another successful movie with the protagonist being a young woman who is the victim of the feudal system. This movie is a story about a rich man with his four wives. The protagonist is the newest mistress named Songlian. Songlian was a happy college student. Due to the death of her father, she has to quit her study. Her greedy step mother persuades her to get married.
According to the confucian thought, a girl has to obey her parents and even elder brother. She has no freedom in choosing her own life. As a result, Songlian flashs to get married to a rich man who already has three wives or mistresses.
Once she arrived at her master’s home, Songlian has to obey the rule of her master. She cannot do what she likes to do. She has to follow the arrangement made by her master. Her master behaves like an emperor. His mansion is like the Forbidden City which contains red lanterns. There is a red lantern in front of every wife’s house, which are lit when the master comes to the house . The lit red lantern signals the power within the household. Songlian must compete with the other mistresses of the household. Whoever has a son will have her position in the family. For this purpose, they do not trust each other and always fight each other for their own interest. Here the woman is only a toy and a tool for generation linage, as Songlian said:” What is a woman? A woman is like a dog, a cat, golden fish or like a rat? A woman is like any animal but a human.”
Feudal system and Confucian thought not only deprive women of their rights, but also make women numb. After Songlian entered the family, she tried to oppose the feudal system, but she failed. She has to get used to the family. She pretend to get pregnant, but soon she is discovered to lie. As a result, the red lantern in her house is banned froever. After seeing the maid girl frozen to death and the third mistress hanging to death, she collapses and becomes a lunatic.
This is the fate of Songlian.who is a victim of the feudal society. She is powerless against traditions that have been around for thousands of years (7).
In her family, there is no personal freedom. Everything is arranged. There are many rules in guiding the daily life. Songlian can eat only after the order is given by the master. She cannot light the lantern. Only if the master goes to her house, the lantern can be lit. Songlian lives a life like a ghost. In her eyes, the difference between her and a ghost is just a breath. .
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Both Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern are the master pieces of Zhang Yimou, which reflect the cannibalism nature of feudal system by exposing the tragic lives of young Chinese women. Confucian thoughts and the feudal ideology are the cage and chain lockers of the women. The movies portrait the darkest sides of China under the old and long feudal systems, which are the main causes of ignorance and insanity in China. The movies have showed great sympathy on the helpless women and strongly criticized the feudal ethical codes and Confucian thoughts. Fortunately, we are now living in a different age. Women have the equality more than any time in record history. We cherish the present equal society.
1) Tan, Ye. “From the Fifth to the Sixth Generation: An Interview With Zhang Yimou.” Film Quarterly. 1999. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1070/2_53/59210750/print.jhtml
(2) Farquhar, “Zhang Yimou.” Senses of Cinema: Great Directors — A Critical Database..Mary. 2002
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/zhang.html
(3) James, Caryn, “On Oppression of Women in China,” in New York Times , September 22 1990. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE1DA1238F931A1575AC0A966958260
(4) Zhang Yimou. Frances K. Gateward, Yimou Zhang, University Press of Mississippi, 2001,
(5) Cui, Shuqin. Gendered Perspective: The Construction and Representation of Subjectivity and Sexuality in Ju Dou. Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender(Ed. by Sheldon Hsiao-peng Lu). University of Hawai’i Press, 1997.
(6) Eric Baculinao, China grapples with legacy of its ‘missing girls’, NBC News, September 14 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5953508
(7) Danny Su, “Red Lantern adeptly heightens concern for women”, The Tech Online Edition, Volume 112. Issue 24 , Friday, May 1, 1992
http://tech.mit.edu/V112/N24/lantern.24a.html
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