Red Sorghum (1988) User Reviews (36)

Barbaric and beautiful

[DennisLittrell · 8/10 · 3 June 2003]

Although I don't think this is quite as good as some of the other films that master Chinese film maker Zhang Yimou has made--e.g., Raise the Red Lantern (1991); The Story of Qiu Ju (1991); Ju Duo (1990)--Red Sorghum is nonetheless an outstanding film strikingly presented visually and thematically.

Gong Li stars as the betrothed of an old leprous wine maker. The film opens with her being carried in a covered sedan chair to the consummation of her wedding by a rowdy crew from the sorghum winery. It is the 1930s or a little before. They joust her about according to tradition and sing a most scary song about how horrible her life is going to be married to the leprous old man. Through a break in the sedan's enclosure as she sits alone in fear and dread she catches sight of Jiang Wen, a burly, naturalistic man with a piercing countenance. A little later after a bit of unsuccessful highway robbery during which she is released from her confinement, they exchange meaningful glances. The young man doing the voice-over identifies them as his Grandmother and Grandfather. (Obviously the leprous old man is going to miss out!)

Zhang Yimou's technique here, as in all of his films that I have seen, is to tell a story as simply as possible from a strong moral viewpoint with as little dialogue as possible and to rely on sumptuous sets, intense, highly focused camera work, veracious acting by a carefully directed cast, and of course to feature the great beauty of his star, the incomparable and mesmerizing Gong Li. If you haven't seen her, Red Sorghum is a good place to start. Jiang Wen is also very good and brings both a comedic quality to the screen as well as an invigorating vitality. His courageous and sometimes boorish behavior seems exactly right.

I should warn the viewer that this film contains striking violence and would be rated R in the United States for that and for showing a little boy always naked and for the "watering" of the wine by Jiang Wen and the boy. Indeed the film is a little crude at times and represents a view of pre-communist China and its culture that the present rulers find agreeable. The depiction of the barbarity and cruelty of the Japanese soldiers is accurate from what I know, but I must say that this film would never have seen the light of day had communist soldiers been depicted in such a manner.

Nonetheless the treatment is appropriate since Red Sorghum is a masculine, lusty film suggesting the influence of Akira Kurosawa with perhaps a bit of Clint Eastwood blended in. There are bandits and tests of manhood. The men get drunk and behave badly. Masculine sexual energy is glorified, especially in the scene where Jiang Wen carries Gong Li off to bed, holding her like a barrel under his arm, feet forward, after having "watered" her wine as though to mark his territory. The camera trailing them shows her reach up and put her arms around his neck and shoulder as much in sexual embrace as in balance.

Obviously this is Zhang Yimou before he became completely enamored of the feminist viewpoint; yet somehow, although Gong Li is allowed to fall in love with her rapist (something not possible in contemporary American cinema), Zhang Yimou manages to depict her in a light that celebrates her strength as a woman. One can see here the germination of the full blown feminism that Zhang Yimou would later develop in the aforementioned Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou and Qiu Ju.

As usual in Zhang Yimou's films not only are the sets gorgeous but the accompanying accouterments--the pottery, the costumes, the lush verdure of the sorghum fields, even the walls and interiors of the meat house restaurant/bar and Gong Li's bedroom--are feasts for the eyes, somehow looming before cinematographer Gu Changwei's camera more vividly than reality.

There are some indications here however that Zhang Yimou had not yet completely mastered his art, and indeed was working under the constraint of a limited budget. For example there was no opening in the sedan through which Gong Li could see Jiang Wen, and there shouldn't have been one (a peephole maybe). The pouring of the wine (into presumably empty bowls that obviously already contained wine) by Jiang Wen needed more practice. In his later films Zhang Yimou would reshoot such scenes to make them consistent with the audience's perception. Additionally, Gong Li's character was not sufficiently developed early on for us to appreciate her confident governance of the winery she had inherited. "Uncle" Luohan's apparently jealous departure from the winery and his implied relationship with and loyalty to Gong Li were also underdeveloped.

However these are minor points: in what really matters in film making--telling a story and engaging the audience in the significance and the experience of the tale--in these things Zhang Yimou not only excelled, but gave promise of his extraordinary talent that would be realized in the films to come. See this by all means, but don't miss his Raise the Red Lantern, in my opinion one of the greatest films ever made.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

more colorful than the title suggests

[mjneu59 · 7/10 · 29 December 2010]

The much heralded renaissance of New Chinese Cinema can be an acquired taste to many Western filmgoers, but this handsome period piece (directed by the cinematographer of 'Yellow Earth', 1984) is livelier and more accessible than most. Part folk tale, part historical drama, it tells the story of a young virgin (sold by her father into marriage with a wealthy leper, in return for a mule), who after her husband's mysterious death continues to run his successful vineyard, with help from her loyal wedding bearers. And yet for all its undeniable physical beauty and colorful action the film can be a dry experience, at least until the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s. With the Japanese occupation some emotional urgency finally breaks through the film's mantle of reserve, which up to that point had marked even the more bawdy episodes of communal singing and drinking.

A Singular Chinese Film

[williamknott · 8/10 · 26 July 2001]

There are several versions of this film available on video. Some are in wide screen, some aren't. The impact of the visuals is lost without the full-shot wide screen. Then there are two different subtitled versions, one that has large subtitles and another that uses smaller but less intrusive subtitles, which is the best of the two. So depending on what version of the video you're watching, your experience of the film can vary. But assuming you get your hands on the good version...

This film is like a quiet fairy tale that transforms into something that I didn't see coming. The visuals are stunning. The story slowly unfolds but is presented so well that it's completely compelling. The acting is as good as it gets. And the ending hits you like a punch in the stomach.

This films stands out from all other Chinese films I have seen. It has a character uniquely its own, and is well worth seeking out.

Red Sorghum is a cinematic wonder...

[P-Style · 10/10 · 8 December 1999]

Red Sorghum will delight those that enjoy the art of cinematography. This visually stunning film truly deserves its international acclaim simply because of the way it presents the tale through its remarkable use of imagery, lighting, and filters.

Until I saw this film, I would have never thought that one could say so much about character, setting, mood and plot simply through the use of layout and image composition. This controversial film set in the 1920's - 1930's, by the rebellious Zhang Yimou, follows the life of sorghum wine farmers from Northern China.

If you follow the history of Chinese film, you will see how nicely this film combines motif's of many of its precursor films. Chinese history and culture has been vastly explored through many Chinese films, however I believe that this is a good film for the average American film goer to get a taste of the Chinese film industry and culture through their perspective. I say this for a variety of reasons, the pacing of this drama is quicker and faster moving compared to other related Chinese films before its time. Generally Chinese film have a tendency to be slow, when set aside the general American preferred standards.

It presents to us some of the Northern Chinese cultural traditions. Its display of the Japanese brutality could not have been better presented. The Japanese have been quite swinish during this period in Chinese history. All I can say is it says it all as it really was, very well indeed.

This is the last but most important reason to watch this film... look at its cinematography. It has to be among the best I have ever seen. It amazed me to see how resourceful a cinematographer can be when working for a film of little budget. Yimou showed me how simple things can be filmed to be works of art. Unfortunately I have not been able to see the film in its original cinematic scope however, even in full screen it is still quite visually stunning. The aperture, f-stop and lens settings were set just perfectly giving the film a very rich vibrant look making Yimou my favorite Chinese film cinematographer/director of all time to date. Oh, it is a film that you just have to see for yourself! Hope you enjoy it! Happy Viewing!

Joyful, painful, funny, and horrifying and why isn't it on DVD?

[robzilla2001 · 10/10 · 21 August 2005]

Credit goes to Yimou for stripping this epic 2 novel series down to this spare and gorgeous little hour and a half. For all the recent fantastic forays into Chinese fantasy, this story (which is allegedly true) shown as it is, is as close to a fairy tale as it gets, at least until the very end. Every shot is a painting. For some reason this film is still near-impossible to find on DVD. I truly hope it is not being suppressed for anti-Japanese sentiment expressed in it. That would be a terrible shame. This film was released shortly before Tienanmenn (sp) and it has a boldness and frank humor rarely seen in Chinese film since.

Red Sky, Red Wine, Red Blood, Red Dust of the Earth

[dennisyoon · 8 March 2004]

Red Sorghum. Red is for blood. Blood/Wine coursing through your veins. Blood Pumping Love in your heart and Courage as well. Blood of your loved ones killed in war. Blood of your enemies. Blood of your Brothers. I get it now. I remember his masterful use of color. Just like how he retells the stories in different colors for "Hero". This is how I felt after watching "Red Sorghum."

Gong Li is stunning as usual. Check out Zhang Yimou as Brother Lohan. He displays such dignity. Muscle Man quite often steals the show with his bravado. The songs are uplifting and beautiful to hear. The scenery takes you away and the fields of sorghum are alive and pulling you in like Nature Herself.

While gutwrenching like his other movies, the characters in this one are especially endearing in their loyalty to each other. What more can I say. Poetry brought to life.

Life around the color red.

[anand1213 · 7/10 · 10 August 2013]

This film captures the Chinese landscape with a touch of love, love that the filmmakers had for their people and their culture which fuses with the sorghum fields and the folk songs they sing when they are happy or when they are in pain and anguish, beautifully. I felt the Japanese effect or the tyrannical force with which they subdued the Chinese should have been shown a little more, it all happened in a jiffy. The storytelling is pretty but fails to connect on many levels. Like the transition of a poor village girl into a strong distillery owner and the level of trust and love she is shown by the workers and the sudden infatuation that develops and is accepted between her and Yu. Also the way we are shown the attack sequence was not at all engaging, it only had slow-mo shots of people falling/running but the final shot of redness surrounding Yu and his son was brilliant. Watch it, for you'll get a peek into Chinese culture, the position of women in it, their traditions and songs and most importantly the red wine, red like blood mingling to mark a jarringly tough Chinese wartime life.

The Chinese Apocalypse Now

[Killer-40 · 10/10 · 28 October 1999]

Definitely one of the best anti-war movies with an unforgettable ending where a child sings a song that goes to your heart. Red colours the whole movie, which deals with wine (remember the recipe) and love as well as with the cruelties of the Japanese in China. This film lacks words and totally relies on cinematography. A feast for the eyes, even stronger as the later JI DOU or RED LANTERN by the same director, each image wants to burn itself into your brain.

Tasty bit of Sorg

[TheCorniestLemur · 6/10 · 22 March 2021]

I swear I didn't watch two films with a lot of trampled crops that I only think are above average in a row on purpose.

I will say one thing that I absolutely loved about this for sure - it is a gorgeous film. The colours are vibrant and often contrast to make some breathtaking images, and it's really well shot even if you ignore the colours.

I think the acting is also largely pretty good, but if you've read my reviews of certain other films then you probably know what I'm about to dunk on - I don't care about anything or anyone in the story here. I wouldn't exactly call this a nothing film, but it certainly has a lot of the trademarks, like being about some people working a menial job and having a pretty meandering narrative.

It's most interesting at the beginning and end, and there's a whole lot in the middle that didn't interest me at all aside from one scene that was pretty funny. There's also a rather annoying amount of telling instead of showing around this section, which you'd think anyone telling a story of any kind would know is arguably the first rule of storytelling.

Also the music is kind of obnoxious. Not sure if it's traditional Chinese music or not but I didn't like it.

I guess I just don't like trampled crops. All that food gone to waste.

Good Wine

[Meganeguard · 9/10 · 6 October 2006]

I have been a fan of Zhang Yimou's films since 1999 when I first watched his 1991 film Raise The Red Lantern for my East Asian Novel class, and since then I have watched several other of his films such as Not One Less, To Live, The Road Home, Happy Times, and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles. Each one of his films brings something new to the table and delves into such issues as urban/rural conflicts, political corruption, and Japan-China relations. Red Sorghum is Zhang Yimou's first film as a director and while it may be a bit simpler than many of his later films it contains elements that almost every fan of his films will be familiar with: beautiful settings, very fleshed out characters, and moments of conflict where those who possess little power are overwhelmed by larger forces. Also, Red Sorghum is Gong Li first film, and it is nice to see that even at such a young age, 21, that she already possessed on screen charisma that can really grip the viewer's heart. While not as masterful as her performances in To Live or Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, her tears and iron core are still quite moving.

Based on Mo Yan's novel of the same name, Red Sorghum tells the story of a young girl nicknamed Nine, she is the ninth child of her family and she was born on the ninth day of the ninth month, who was given to a leper named Big Head Li who traded a mule for her. On her trip to Big Head Li's home, while being jostled about in the sedan chair as custom would have it, Nine peeks from behind the curtains and spots one of the well-muscled sedan carriers and falls in love with him at first site. Later, After killing a would be thief and being able to see Nine for the first time, the sedan carrier, who is only referred to as "my grandfather" by the narrator, falls instantly in love also. On a trip back to her father's home, as custom would hold on the third day of marriage, Nine is accosted by a masked man who turns out to be the sedan carrier. There under the shadows of the sorghum they make love. While a her father's home Big Head Li is killed although no one knows who did it, so upon her return to the winery Nine inherits the place and asks the workers to stay and work for her. Included amongst these workers is an older man named Luohan whom Nine takes to immediately. However, the Sedan carrier also returns drunk and says some quite rude things about Nine, however, the two eventually come to peace with each other and for a while things seem to be going well…until the Japanese army invades.

Red Sorghum is at times hilarious such as when The sedan carrier, Jiang Wen, sings and cries to himself when he is in a wine pot for three days, sad, and absolutely brutal. There are some scenes after the Japanese army has invaded that will truly make one cringe. While some of his later films are better known and show the evidence of skilled craftsmanship from years of experience, Red Sorghum should not be missed for its significance in the history of recent Chinese cinema as the first pairing of Zhang Yimou and Gong Li.

Man Keep Mouth Shut, Not Lose Tongue.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 14 May 2017]

The film opens with the narrator's telling us that a father has just arranged the marriage of his daughter -- the egregiously beautiful Gong Li -- to a wine merchant who is rich but leprous. We see the bride-to-be carried in a bright red sedan by half a dozen men, followed by another small band playing Chinese music on tinny instruments. It's not a Hollywood movie. The procession doesn't move solemnly across the arid landscape as it might if, say, Gene Tierney or Susan Hayward were being carried. The men holding the sedan have heavy round wooden dowels across their shoulders and are ridiculing the young lady, bouncing her up and down, singing riotously about how she will soon catch leprosy. None of this causes Gong Li any pleasure, and she discretely tucks a pair of scissors into her blouse.

After the wedding and a few odd interruptions, somebody apparently kills the leprous winery owner and Gong Li is now the owner. She begins with a clean slate. From now on, she won't be called "boss" but by her real name. The men will burn everything the leper touched and will sprinkle sorghum wine all around the plantation because the wine is known to cure all evil. At this point it was beginning to sound like an endorsement of communism but the dozen workers react with such unencumbered joy, screaming drunkenly and splashing the wine all over the place, that visions of "Viridiana" came to mind. What are they going to do next, somehow desecrate Confucius? Gong Li was apparently raped on her way to her wedding by the narrator's grandfather. After she takes command of the winery, she is kidnapped by bandits and apparently abused again before being ransomed. Meanwhile, the narrator's grandfather, penniless, has been wandering the countryside. He's not too smart, gets belligerent in a roadside beef house run by the bandits.

Cut. Forty-eight minutes into the story, the video clip ends with no parts to follow. And so we leave grandpa, surrounded by murdering bandits who want to cut out his tongue for non-payment of a bill at a Chinese restaurant. He's reckless, lawless, and stupid but I hope he keeps his tongue in the future in this colorful story -- such as it is.

Mmmm.... delicious leper wine...

[sc8031 · 8/10 · 23 July 2008]

Here is a solid film by Yimou Zhang, from the fifth generation of Chinese directors. Red Sorghum is told as a flashback, a narration by the main character's grandson. Gong Li plays an attractive lower-class Chinese woman who is sent, against her will, to be married to an old leper who runs a winery.

The story takes place on the eve of the Japanese occupation before World War II and later features some ugly scenes from their invasion. There is an underlying motif regarding feminism (a lot of this generation of Chinese directors seemed to deal with this) and the inability of females to be even remotely empowered in this time and place. I enjoyed seeing the class boundaries and customs of late-Qing China, the occasionally goofy sense of humor, and the almost lawless, ruthless communities out in the desert.

The film takes place in only a handful of locations, but features some gorgeous cinematography. The vibrant red colors (perhaps an allusion to Communist rule and foreshadowing bloodshed? It's hard to tell whether this film is for or against Communist China) are illustrated vividly by the sorghum wine and the long views of the sun setting across the Chinese desert. The pacing is slow but efficient and the story is a memorable one.

It's quite indisputable (to me, at least!) that, although this was Yimou Zhang's first film, it's loads better than his later movies, "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers". Hopefully one day he'll catch up to where he started.

Evocative and un-PC

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 14 July 2014]

RED SORGHUM, the first film made by famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, is an adaptation of a Mo Yan novel that sees a beautiful young woman - played by Yimou's muse, Gong Li - travelling to a remote winery to marry the leprous owner. What follows is a film that's visually striking, beautifully made and distinctly non-PC.

Feminists or fans of gender equality made have a few issues with this film and in particular its depiction of the power struggles between a pair of lovers. Let's just say the character of the grandfather is very, er, backward, in his treatment of women, and yet the script never seeks to chastise or make him see the error of his ways; even worse, the female character appears to condone his behaviour. This kind of stuff sat oddly with me, even if it is a true depiction of the era.

Still, there's plenty of stuff to like here, particularly the last couple of reels in which things get a lot darker, including one set-piece which is cringeworthy indeed. The ending is abrupt and the characterisation is fairly limited, but Yimou's film has so many visual flourishes and is so vibrant to look at that it's hard to dislike.

Bizarre on all levels

[p-seed-889-188469 · 3/10 · 27 November 2015]

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.

Reviewing Red Sorghum (1988)

[gq6 · 12 May 2011]

Reviewing Red Sorghum (1988) The movie Red Sorghum (1988) adapted from the novel of the same tile won Golden Bear Award at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival. The film won the international reputation for its director, Yimou Zhang; and also star the actress, Li Gong.

This film is about the story of 'my grandmother and grandfather' in a rural village in Northern China. The story started from my grandmother who was on the way to her prearranged old husband's winery distillery factory. My grandmother, a young bride, was sent to get married with an owner of a wine distillery factory. After experiencing attack by a bandit, abduction, and mysterious death of her prearranged husband, my grandmother inherited that wine distillery. The story was ended by the death of my grandma during the period of Japanese invasion.

Off-screen voices adopted as one important dramatic element is unique characteristic of this movie. The plot is structured into a completed story by the "narrator"- I , the grandson of the protagonists. At the beginning, audiences can hear the off-screen voices arose: "I'll talk about my grandpa and my grandpa" (Red Sorghum,1988). The narrator did not appear in the movie, which makes him in the neutral objective position; in the other hand, he is the descendant of story characters, which makes him becoming a subjective participation to some degree. "I" was telling the story; and also I was told about my family history. Off-screen narration appear 12 times in the movie. The relationships between characters and the progress of plot at turning point depends on 'my narration', for example, the relationship between my grandma, her prearranged leprosy husband and sedan carriage worker (my grandpa); the mysterious death of leprosy husband, the process of my grandma abduction, the left of Uncle Lohan, and the appearance of Japanese troops. The integration of real family history and unreal story completely depends on my off-screen narrations, which helps the connection of past with present, the real with the unreal. The film narrative approach ultimately generates historical distant effects in time and space.

Cinematographic style is another prominent characteristic of the film. The director stylized the film with intense and rich red color. The screen is completely occupied by bright red color. At the beginning, a red scarf is filled with the whole screen; under the red scarf is my grandma's brighten young face with red makeup; the red sorghum stalk is glittered with the flash sunlight in the fields; the red sorghum wine liking rains is prayed around; the naked body is completely full of blood; and the world become the totally red after the mysterious total solar eclipse. At the end of the film, the flowing black red sorghum emphasized on the screen, which generates a brilliant and strong visual effect. This is not a realistic representation of time and space; it is the externalization of human innate desire for natural life and validity. Regardless of the plot, the extension of the red force gives audiences a pure emotional experience that is filled with wild and heroic.

Unlike other Chinese films of the same period, Red Sorghum is not a typical realism film. The director did neither tell a legend of China's farmers nor seek for " the national cultural root" (Ni, 2002). The film only wants to praise 'life, endless vitality, freedom, life expansion and stretch' (Ni, 2002).The sun is regarded as the origin of life. The brilliant red filled with the screen represents the mythology of "worship of the Sun" (Ni, 2002). Covered with a mysterious color, the director explores the significance of freedom and the nature of life, which goes beyond political ideology, social structure, and cultural differences. The themes going through the film are about the vitality and the freedom. The film expresses the desire for a liberated, plain and undistorted state. This is not the world what has been understood by people now; it is a world that concerns for the life rights of human being instead (Ni, 2002). Because the praise for vigorous vitality and freedom is an universal idea of human regardless of language and culture, this film won the international honors.

Overall, the high artistic achievement in cinematography and the uniqueness in plot structure make this film becoming one representative works of China's fifth generation filmmakers. Audiences can read the reconsideration for the nature of life, the future world as well as the destiny of mankind in that world known for us.

References Ni, Z (2002). Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy: The Genesis of China's Fifth Generation. translated by Chris Berry. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Red Sorghum (1988) Yimou Zhang

People of the soil

[nqure · 8/10 · 19 March 2017]

It's rare to find Yimou's films on terrestrial/free to air digital television. 'Raise The Red Lantern' is a fascinating film as well as the mythic 'Ju Dou' so I was keen to watch 'Red Sorghum' for the first time.

It is a bawdy, earthy film yet also mysterious & complex as represented by characters such as the boy's Grandfather & the steward, Luohan as well as the bandit Sanpao. The sedan carriers sing a song mocking the bride yet cease when they hear her sobbing. A bandit attacks them but is fatally distracted by the young woman's beauty.

It's reflected in the songs which accompany the film, from the bawdy & slightly grotesque (the bridal litter scene in the beginning) to songs sung in praise of a wine spirit, an older China of pagan rituals. It is about a peasant community with its own folklore (the disappearance of Big Head Li) & codes (Sanpao & the Grandfather, the ransom).

'Red Sorghum' is about a land & the people rooted to its soil, their rituals & traditions, & following the Japanese occupation, how these survive as the Grandfather is literally covered in earth, & China re-born.

The film is narrated (voice over) by the boy's adult self. It has a mythic kind of tone & mood. Ancestors occupy a special role in Chinese life & are venerated. Continuity is reflected by the boy's Grandmother, who asks the villagers to call her by her family nickname 'Little Nine'. Later, the story fast-forwards nine years to the narrator as a young boy.

The story begins with a poor young woman forced into an arranged marriage though this strand is of secondary importance (in contrast to 'Raise The Red Lantern') as the story is about how she overcomes her dismal prospects (her father barters her for a mule, a comment perhaps on the treatment of women/of less value than a mule) & assumes a prominent role in the peasant community.

The sorghum becomes a symbol of China, of its people. The fields can be dangerous & illicit, a place where bandits hide, but also a source of life & prosperity, the red wine that resembles blood & which is sacrificed to the wine spirit. Later, the steward & others make an even greater sacrifice for their land.

The major turning point of the film is akin to the abrupt change of tone in 'The Deer-hunter' (structure), domestic scenes giving way to the brutal Japanese occupation. The scenes are unsentimental & all the more shocking for this. The sorghum fields are trampled down & crushed, like the Chinese people. The slightly comical butchers who worked for the bandit Sanpao are forced into a horrific choice, the scenes where the older butcher gently washes Sanpao & his poor young assistant driven mad by what he has been forced to do linger in your mind. Images reinforce points, here the Japanese are the real butchers.

The film doesn't just depict the Chinese as passive, but proud & defiant. 'Little Nine' urges the villagers to avenge the Japanese's victims leading to the violent explosive denouement.

It is a beautifully filmed piece of work, the red hue which imbues the cinematography to the indigo blue of the night skies with the moon high above. The final image of the sorghum swaying again in the red sunlight is a symbol of China itself & of its people, whatever history may throw at them, be it a decadent master to amoral occupiers & maybe even a one party state.

A ravishing metaphor for 20th century China

[wood-gledhow · 10/10 · 16 March 2017]

This was broadcast recently on Film 4 in the UK. I hadn't seen it for many years and I'm here to tell you it's an absolute classic in many ways.

It's a wonderfully shot and atmospheric film - as you've come to expect from the director - and it runs a full emotional gamut from youthful exuberance, through growing maturity to angry armed resistance to the Japanese occupation.

The sorghum wine itself, red and glowing, reflects blood, sacrifice, pleasure and pain.

The compositions of the shots, again as you'd expect from this director, are painterly and breath taking. I found myself pausing the live action to fully drink in much of the framing. No martial arts, no special digital effects just glorious film making.

The voice over works well to distance and frame the action - although there's a degree of unreliable narration.

A wonderful film I urge you to see it.

Two movies in one.

[weirdquark · 7/10 · 27 August 2022]

A languid story of hardscrabble life in an undefined, pre-industrial time and an undefined, windswept location takes a radical, tire-shredding left turn in the last 25 minutes to transform, Chestburster-like, into a World War II, anti-Japanese Resistance movie. I have no problems with surprising plot developments, tonal shifts, or the mixing of genres, but What. The. Hell.

You can almost hear the Chinese Communist Party's Minister for Culture and Propaganda yelling at the director "WTF are you doing with this story about wine peasants in the outback??? Make me something anti-imperialist!!! Make me something about glorious Communist resistance fighters!! What are we paying you for??? Do we need to send you to a re-education camp AGAIN???"

Having said that, the film has lovely locations, gorgeous cinematography, and a refreshing pace, especially compared to the frenetic, wall-to-wall noise of current Chinese cinema. It was an impressive first film for director Zhang Yimou and star Gong Li.

But still, that Left Turn... Oof.

The Debut from the Chinese Danny Boyle

[tim-764-291856 · 8/10 · 13 October 2012]

I refer to, of course, 2008's Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing being designed and choreographed by the visionary director of this, his first film - China's own Yimou Zhang.

And here is where it all started - though previously he had been a cinematographer - and it shows - Red Sorghum is beautiful, visually but with that extra edge of human darkness; lust, greed, violence, death, murderous invaders, all set within or close to the wavering seas of sorghum grasses, grown for making a blood-red wine.

Both blood and wine flows copiously at times as this tale gets handed down through the generations; a story that starts simply but which builds into a brazen attack on the senses, the superb use of colour mixing with excellent dramatic acting, slow-moving and evocative long takes and occasional bursts of action - and some comedy, good natural comedy that's actually a joy and which breaks down any boundaries concerned with race, or time.

I quite like the narration that occasionally ables us and the songs, more like spiritual war-dances than pretty ditties.

If you prefer your Chinese/Hong Kong movies more action-based with high- kicking martial arts or big-scaled epic battles, then this might leave you disappointed - this is more Art-house, something to ponder and savour than having your eyeballs filled with non-stop thrills.

A convincing image of life in rural China during the Second Sino-Japanese War

[Flurokazoo · 7/10 · 4 December 2017]

1988's Red Sorghum was part of the first wave of fifth generation directors. While I don't think this is one of the best films Zhang Yimou has directed, it definitely is a good one. Its plot has some striking similarities with his later films Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern, seeing as all three movies deal with Gong Li being married to a (rich) man.

Gong Li is pretty good in this film, although maybe not as memorable as some of her other parts. Jiang Wen's character is by far the most interesting character from the movie to me. He is somewhat of a scoundrel, starting off as a somewhat morally gray man. As the film progresses, he grows closer to Gong Li's character.

The last part of the movie deals with the Second Sino-Japanese War and the invasion of the Imperial Japanese Army. Up to this point, the film has been relatively light to digest. However, the last part adds drama by depicting some of the horrors that the occupation brought with it.

The film's end is definitely one of the highlights here. I won't spoil it, but it makes a great case of why Zhang Yimou is often referred to as the 'Master of Color'. It's nothing short of amazing.

In conclusion, while I definitely like this film, it does miss some of the drive and drama that are present in Zhang's best films. Besides the amazing ending, the movie just didn't blow me away. What it did do was paint a convincing image of life in rural China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Brilliant scenes and a wonderful use of colours, but disjointed plot.

[Falkner1976 · 7/10 · 22 February 2022]

Brilliant first movie for Yimou.

The film has several abrupt changes, several breaks that almost start a new film, without us having the feeling that the previous one has finished. There is not much to give coherence to the whole. It often results in anecdotes without continuity or apparent real significance from the narrative point of view. Some scenes are magnificent but they are too disjointed.

The film also maintains its distance from the characters, despite the brilliant performances of the protagonists that do not move us in the least. Some moments of violence of extreme cruelty are shocking, but regardless of who it happens to.

But there is a lot to enjoy and to shock us.

What remains above all, as always with Yimou, is the visual spectacle: the careful compositions, magnificent use of color, here still enormously expressive and far from the insubstantial aestheticism that will be Yimou's trademark in the 21st century.

red dawn

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 13 March 2015]

It's 1930s China. Jiu'er (Li Gong) is sent by her father to marry the leper winery owner Li Datou. On the way there, there are fields of red sorghum growing wild. She goes home to deliver the mule from Li Datou. She is taken out into the fields by Luohan where they have sex. Li Datou is killed by an unknown assailant and the winery is left to Jiu'er. Luohan returns drunk and making demands on her. He is thrown out. After he sobers up, he urinates into the wine and picks her up like in the field into her home. Surprisingly, the urine wine turns out to be the best ever. That night Luohan leaves and Jiu'er has a child. Nine years later, Luohan returns and the Japanese arrive.

It starts off as a funny quirky film. It has moments of originality. When the Japanese come, the movie goes to another gear and another level. It's jarring and compelling. The red color infiltrates everything like the film itself is bleeding. Li Gong makes a terrific debut. The final orgy of violence is shocking.

Red Sorghum

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 13 February 2013]

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!

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

[paloma54 · 3/10 · 20 August 2013]

Well, I admit that I am a fan of Zhang Yimou's movies, but this film seems to me inept, ill-paced, tedious, poorly edited, and somewhat propagandizing in overall feel. Yes, some of the imagery and cinematography is stunning, yes, Li Gong is fabulous, but altogether, it doesn't seem to add up to much. There are long stretches of film with literally no movement at all, no narration, no sound (usually the last thing about which I complain!), and nothing happening. The lack of continuity or explanation of events makes for a disjointed story. It isn't helped by the extremely inept English subtitles which accompany the copy I viewed from my local library. I hope someone will release a version with a decent set of subtitles. Honestly, most of the international students I know, including those from China, could do a better job of translating the subtitles.

All in all, this film seems promising but extremely amateurish, a quality which seems to endear it to those buffs of "art films".

The Zhang Yimou quintuplet

[tieman64 · 23 August 2014]

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.

7.9/10 - See "Yellow Earth" (1984).