Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mathster The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

gavin6942 In 1930s China, a young woman is sent by her father to marry the leprous owner of a winery. In the nearby red sorghum fields she falls for one of his servants. When the master dies she finds herself inheriting the isolated business.Like Zhang's later film, "The Road Home" (1999), "Red Sorghum" is narrated by the main characters' grandson, but "Red Sorghum" lacks the flashback framing device of "The Road Home" (the viewer never sees the narrator). The cinematography by Gu Changwei makes use of rich, intense colors. Zhang himself was a cinematographer prior to his directorial debut, and worked closely with Gu. Indeed, it is the colors, coupled with the expressions of the lead actress, that really sell this film.Wang Yichuan pointed to the director's fascination with the "strongman," and found hints of a "fascist aesthetics" in the film. This would not have occurred to me, but it is certainly visible. The question is then asked: does this carry through all his work?

p-seed-889-188469 According to other reviewers "Red Sorghum" is a cinematic wonder, a masterpiece, exquisite and many similar gushing adjectives. I wish I could agree but I cannot. Apparently this movie was based on a famous, prize winning novel. I have no idea if that novel has a point but this movie does not. The movie opens to a bride being carried in a sedan chair to the site of her arranged marriage. The groom must have been born under a bad sign, for apparently not only has he a big head but also leprosy. To cap it off he is murdered before we even get to see him, so that at least was a saving on casting. For reasons that are not clear the girl has with her a pair of scissors. Maybe she was going to adjust her hem on the way but who knows. The sedan chair carriers burst lustily into voice with a song reminiscent of "Bold Sir Robin" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail". It was actually pretty funny and I thought maybe the movie would reveal itself to be a laugh out loud comedy. But regrettably not, any humour is simply because each scene is more ridiculous and illogical than the last. This movie could have been a love story. But it wasn't. It could have been a character story. But it wasn't - the characters are all cartoons of people I could not care less about. It could have been a drama. But it wasn't, the only "drama" is contrived. It could have been a history lesson. But it wasn't, we get a one line reference to communism and a random and out of context cameo appearance by the Japanese Imperial Army. 1940's China is one of the richest, most complex, heart breaking stories in the History of the World, but do we see any of it? No dice. I could go on and dissect every scene for its stupidity and irrelevance, but I would exceed the 1000 word limit and test the reader's patience. According to other viewers Gong Li is the next best thing to Venus on Earth. Perhaps she is in other movies, but not in this one. She is portrayed as one of 500 million dirt poor peasants eking out a subsistence living out in the backblocks of China. To the credit of the film makers she is portrayed this way, not unattractive but certainly not attractive, either physically or as a person. Other reviewers praise the cinematography, possibly because it is the only redeeming feature of this movie. Sure, it has lots of sorghum leaves blowing in the wind, silhouettes of a totally out of place arch against the moon in all its phases, and lots of red tinting. But I'm sorry, pretty as it is, attempting to make a film "arty" by using all the usual suspects of "Arthouse Film 101" is a poor substitute for a real movie. If I can compare this movie to a meal it is heavy on garnish but has no meat and potatoes. It leaves you unsatisfied.

KingLongshanks This movie felt like someone set up a camera to film some random boring village-folk in 1930's China. I found nothing redeeming about this film, except for the fact that it takes place during world war two (sort of...) which is a setting I am greatly interested in.The battle scenes (if you could call them that) are like something from a bad YouTube video. Whatever quality it may have had upon original release is just lost to me here, and there is no point spending 2 hours on this movie, when there are hundreds of other great movies out there to find.I am a huge fan of world war two movies, foreign movies and especially Asian war movies, but this one was terribly boring, with little to hold the viewers attention... any more than an old photo album might anyway.As far as movies go, this one should be passed.

Jackson Booth-Millard I had no idea about the meaning of the title, I found out while watching it that sorghum is a cereal grass, like corn or barley, with a tall stem bearing grain in a cluster, anyway, I watched it because it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the debut film from director Yimou Zhang (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). Basically, set in 1930's in China, a young woman called Jiu'er has been bought by a leper who owns a winery and is to marry, but he dies before the ceremony can take place. Also not long before the death and the ceremony she met and fell for one of his servants, known only as Nine - My Grandma (Li Gong), and together they take over the winery. They seem also to form a peaceful mostly female community with Jiu'er as head of the isolated business, which obviously makes wine using the crop of sorghum. The area is invaded though by Japanese intruders who try to rule and make way for a road, meaning that they will cut down all sorghum in the fields, but the villagers rise up and go against them to save their treasured crop that is set to grow. Also starring Wen Jiang as Yu - My Grandpa, Rujun Ten as Uncle Liu Luohan, Liu Jia as My Father, Qian Ming as Nine's Father, Ji Chunhua as Bandit Sanpao and Zhai Chunhua as Hu Er. I will be honest and say that the majority of the first half of the film with the wedding preparations I understood pretty well, the other half I admit I did not pay close attention and lost track of a little, but the costumes and landscapes are filled with great bright colour, and there are some long takes as well, so it certainly looks a fabulous film, it is an interesting and watchable drama. Very good!