A Woman’s Fate

Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou (1991) traces a young lady Songlian’s marriage into the wealthy Chen family, in which she realises the power struggles among the wives and she herself pitting against the domestic battles confined in the walls of the courtyard house, eventually losing her sanity after many turns of events.



Lanterns are used throughout the movie, a symbolism of power as the lighting up of the lanterns at which wife’s quarters would indicate their husband’s preference and favour for the day, and it is an irony as lanterns are supposed to deliver illumination, yet the lanterns barely lit up anything in the characters’ hearts – amidst the conflicts and struggles, each of them lost themselves to the darkness, be it greed, lust, or even Songlian’s desire for freedom it led her onto the path of insanity at the end).

I managed to find this clip of Songlian’s monologue and I found it very apt to describe her resignation to fate and the unwilling conformation to the norms of women being objectified and not treated as humans. Songlian had the chance of receiving education, sadly, education could not win over the fate of her existence treated as mere suppressed object.

娘，你不要再说了，你已经给我说了三天了。

Mother, stop! You’ve been talking for three days.

我也想明白了，嫁人就嫁人吧！
I’ve thought it over. Alright, I’ll get married.

嫁给什么人，能由得了我吗？
What sort of man? Is it up to me?

你一直在提钱，就嫁个有钱人吧！
You always speak of money. Why not marry a rich man?

当小老婆就当小老婆，女人不就这么回事吗？
Let me be a concubine. Isn’t that a woman’s fate?

By the way, this movie reminded me of a very famous Hong Kong drama, War and Beauty, which depicts the power struggles and suppression of women in the Forbidden City.


References:
The “Confusion Ethics” of Raise The Red Lanterns
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
Raise the Red Lantern – Wikipedia