tieman64
This is a very brief review of "Red Sorghum" (1987), "Ju Dou" (1990), "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991), "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) and "To Live" (1994), five films by Zhang Yimou. Each film stars actress Gong Li, each works as a companion-piece to the other, and each deals almost exclusively with the oppression of women within early 20th century China.Zhang's debut, "Red Sorghum" stars Gong Li as Young Nine, a peasant who is sold to a wealthy leper. Things only get worse for Nine, who must fend off a series of rapists, mean men and the Japanese Army itself, all the while running a successful winery. Throughout the film, Zhang uses boxes, deep reds and tight squares to amplify Nine's sexist surroundings. Indeed, the film opens with Nine literally forced into a box, a social reality which she spends the film attempting to break free of or even transform. For Zhang, China wasn't "disrupted" by the Japanese invasion, it was hell long before. Like most of Zhang's films during this period, "Sorghum" sketches the cultural and socioeconomic conditions which spurred China, with hopeful arms, toward Maoism.Zhang's next film, "Ju Dou", covers similar material. Here Gong Li plays Ju Dou, a woman sold to a violent oaf ("When I buy an animal I treat it as I wish!") who owns a fabric dying establishment. After her husband is crippled, Ju Dou forges a relationship with Yang Jinshan, a relative. When Ju Dou and Jinshan have a child together, the kid grows up into a mean brute. Like "Sorghum", "Ju Duo" is a tragedy obsessed with rich reds, boxes and patriarchal violence. Whilst its plot superficially echoes Zhang's own adulterous, then-scandalous affair with Gong Li, Zhang seems more interested in the way Ju Dou and Jinshan hide their illicit affair from other villagers. For Zhang, the duo's tacit submission to social mores merely validates the notion that their love is scandalous and so merely validates the symbolic power of the crippled patriarch, a power which Ju Dou's son must – as per his mother's very own actions – thereby respect and avenge.The arbitrary nature of power, and how this power is always "symbolic" and always unconsciously maintained (via ritual, personal belief and shared delusions), is itself the obsession of Zhang's "Raise the Red Lantern". Here Gong Li again plays a woman sold to a wealthy man. This man has several other wives, all of whom begin to violently fight one another in an attempt to win the patriarch's adoration. "Is it the fate of women to become concubines?" a character asks, pointing to the film's deft critique of feudal relations. Zhang's first masterpiece, "Lantern" is again obsessed with reds, boxes and sequestered women, though here Zhang replaces the voluptuous colours, camera work and widescreen Cinemascopes of his previous films with something more restrained. Because of this, Zhang's conveying of claustrophobia and oppression, of mind and spirit pushed to madness, feels all the more powerful.Next came Zhang's "The Story of Qiu Ju". A near masterpiece, it stars Gong Li as Qui Ju, a peasant farmer who embarks on a quest to avenge her husband, who's had his crotch kicked in by a village leader. More emasculated by this attack than her own husband, Qui Ju's quest takes her all across China, dealing with a Chinese bureaucracy which seems quite helpful, polite and even rational. And yet still this bureaucracy does not please Qiu Ju. It thinks in terms of commodities, monetary recompense and punishment, whilst Qiu Ju (like Zhang Yimou himself, whose previous films were banned, without explanation, by Chinese authorities) seems more interested in acquiring a "shuafa", a simple explanation and apology. By the film's end, both the "primitive justice" of rural China and the "civilized justice" of modern China are simultaneously mocked, praised and shown to be thoroughly incompatible. Zhang's first "neo-realist" film, "Qiu Ju" was shot with hidden cameras, amateur actors, and so is filled with subtle observations, cruel ironies and beautiful sketches of peasant life.One of Zhang's finest films, "To Live" followed. It stars Gong Li as Jiazhen, the wife of a wealthy man (Ge You) who is addicted to gambling. When this gambling results in the family losing its mansions, riches and status, Jiazhen and her husband are forced onto the streets. Ironically, this set-back saves the family; the Cultural Revolution arrives, and with China's shift to nascent communism, all wealthy land owners are demonised, attacked and killed.Unlike most films which tackle life under Mao's Great Leap Forward, "To Live" carefully juggles the good and bad of what was essentially a nation shirking off feudalism, monarchs, uniting and then trying, clumsily, to cook up some form of egalitarian society. This quest results in all manners of contradictions and socio-political paradoxes: community, solidarity and a simple life save our heroes, but their world is one of paranoia, danger, and in which everyone and everything is accused of being "reactionary". The film ends with Jiazhen's daughter dying, a death which is the result of both unchecked consumption (a doctor dies gobbling food) and communist "reorganisation" (all competent doctors have been killed/jailed for being counter-revolutionary). This jab at communism got the film banned in China (further highlighting the insecurity of the regime). Ironically, Maoism saw massive positive health care reformations, and saw an improvement in mortality rates which at times surpassed even then contemporary Britain and parts of America (life expectancy doubled from 32 years in the 1940s to 65 years in the 1970s). But such things don't concern Zhang. Spanning decades, "To Live" is mostly a broad account of life, love, loss and growth (the personal and political), all unfolding upon a canvas that is devastatingly cruel. Significantly, the film's title is both adjectival and a command; this is "what life is", but one must nevertheless "always push on". Gong Li and Ge You in particular are excellent.8.5/10 - See "Yellow Earth" (1984).
p-u-c-111
Title: Huozhe (To Live)Directed by Yimou ZhangReleased: 1994To Live is a powerful drama set in mainland China which highlights many of the ills associated with the various changes in Chinese society during the mid-20th Century. The story spans across four of the most dramatic decades of political, social, and economic reform in Chinese history. Each decade encapsulates a particular event of Chinese socio-political upheaval. The film begins during the Civil war, leading into the midst of the 'Great Leap Forward', followed by the Cultural Revolution. The film follows the lives of Fugui, his wife Jiazhen, and their children Fengxia and Youqing, and depicts the manner in which Chinese families had to cope and adapt to the drastic upheaval in order to avoid being labelled a "capitalist" or a "reactionary" and suffer retribution. The family have to constantly change and reaffirm their identities in a desperate attempt to avoid reprisal. Sadly, as the story demonstrates this is something that in such a stirring time simply cannot be avoided.The Director, Yimou Zhang, utilizes fade shots to suggest the passing of time, the contrast between rich and dull backdrops to imply certain moods, the grandiose landscapes to symbolize isolation, and puts great emphasis upon the symbolism of the shadow puppetry scenes which are heightened by fire illuminating the canvas screen from behind.Fugui is a gambling addict in denial. He is confronted by his wife Jiazhen, a strong, devoted, and selfless woman, with the choice of either giving up gambling and joining her in leading a simple life with their daughter Fengxia, who after a childhood illness becomes a partially deaf mute, or to continue his current lifestyle alone. Youqing, the youngest member of the family, is mischievous and likable and while his father is away, develops a very strong attachment to his mother and his sister.Throughout the film the couple are forced to adapt to the rapid social changes around them in order to protect their family. Their agency as human beings is rendered down to the point where their foremost priority is to follow the majority and keep a low profile, while the fear of reprisal and becoming a target of the community leads the two to blame one another or themselves for the ills bestowed upon them by the socio-political situation in which they find themselves living. In one such instance Youqing stands up against three children who are bullying Fengxia and wrestles the main perpetrator to the ground. Later at a communal meal, Youqing pours a large bowl of hot noodles laced with a healthy quantity of chilli sauce over the head of the instigator stinging his eyes. Fugui tries to restore calm to the situation but the other boys' father claims he is a "counterrevolutionary". Fearing retribution of his sons' actions, Fugui feels compelled to publicly administer a thorough flogging upon Youqing. Fugui was unaware of the events which led to his son acting in such a way, but it is safe to say that regardless of whether he did or not know he would have had to have done the same. Having seen first-hand the hysteria that had gripped the public and how quickly such a seemingly insignificant accusation could suddenly lead to the masses calling for ones' head (the execution of Long'er), there was little else he could do.The two major personal tragedies the couple suffer are the deaths of their two children. The responsibility & circumstances of both deaths can be attributed to the shortcomings of the misguided political regimes during which they each passed. Firstly, Youqing, who at the age of 6 is sent out to work as requested by the government so the township can meet their steel production quota. The boy, having been overworked, has not slept in 3 days and is allowed to have a nap behind a concrete wall. The wall is struck by the district chief's jeep, which then topples over on top of the boy crushing him to death. In a strange twist of fate the District Chief responsible for the premature death of Youqing is Chunsheng - a friend of Fugui's from the civil war and the days of his shadow puppet troupe. Guilt-stricken, Chunsheng frequently offers the couple money as compensation. Jiazhen, out of principle and anger towards Chunsheng, does not accept the money, whereas Fugui does not accept the money in order to maintain his working class appearance. The fear of being labelled a "capitalist" certainly plays on his mind which could lead to him being imprisoned or even executed.The second instance is decades later when their only remaining child is giving birth to their grandchild. Because of the 'great leap forward' where educated peoples were persecuted there were no doctors at hand to care for their daughter during childbirth. They raise this issue with her husband, a leader of the Red Guard, so he collects a specialist from the detention centre to overlook proceedings. The specialist is visibly weak from starvation and stuffs himself full of steamed buns which ultimately incapacitate him when he is needed most. Fengxia, shortly after the birth begins to haemorrhage, but because there are no doctors in the hospital, and only students, nobody knows what to do to save her, which results in Fengxia slowly bleeding to death, dying silently in her mother's arms.The film makes one question whether these dramatic social upheavals were ultimately worth the tragedies so many families must have suffered and endured over the course of those four decades. Fugui throughout most of the film appears unassured by the direction China is heading, but supports the majority out of fear and for the safety of himself and his family. Towards the end of the film however, despite the horrendous losses he and his wife have suffered, Fugui appears genuinely convinced that society is moving forward and for the better of the new generations.
