Recently, I revisited Zhang Yimou's work "The Big Red Lantern Hangs High". This is a history of the decline of a woman in a feudal society in which there were many wives and concubines in a large family, and in order to compete for favors, they eventually fell into self-destruction.
The heroine played by Gong Li in the film, Song Lian, as a female student, was involuntarily married to the Chen family compound and became the fourth aunt. However, in less than a year, he was tormented and tortured in this big feudal family, and finally went crazy. The strange rules in the feudal family, all kinds of unbearable, directly devoured the lotus that was like a flower and jade, pure and vigorous.
In the film, a tall red lantern is hung in the lady's house, and the wife can be proud and do whatever she wants. The exhibition of red lanterns represents the red light district of human nature, representing the fire of human desire that exceeds its own needs. A red light cannot illuminate a person's sad life. For vanity or a breath, women fight for the wind and jealousy, and fight with their lives. In order to control lust, the male master destroys humanity, kills people, and raises sex slaves to deal with women.
The most interesting thing is to beat your feet. As Mr. Chen said in the film, "A woman's feet are the most important, and when the feet are comfortable, they are straightened out, and they are more able to serve men." ”
Later, when Song Lian listened to the hammering feet of The Lady for herself, her face showed an expression of satisfaction and enjoyment, linking the female feet to sex. At the same time, the ritual, especially the privilege brought by the ceremony, makes the newcomer and arrogant "foreign student" gradually indulge in it, the short-term vanity satisfaction makes her addicted, and Zhuo Yun's desire is constantly expanded under the catalyst of the ceremony, and the ceremony has become the need of her life. Even Yu Yan'er, the most unworthy of the yahuan in the house, secretly lit lamps in his room and stubbornly died because the lanterns were burned. The symbolism of the rituals had enveloped the meaning of life in her heart, so she preferred to hollow out her life, starving but desperately maintaining them, almost in a frenzy.
The film "Hanging High with a Red Lantern" uses the tragedy of several women in a large feudal family to expose the essence of the feudal ritual "cannibalism" in feudal society, and conveys the persecution and imprisonment of women by feudal thought on the masses. Just like the "feminism" we are talking about now, it is also the true spirit of female independence in contemporary society, and it is the spirit and thought of women themselves.