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Text/Dongguan
Editor/Dongguan
preface
"The Red Lantern Hangs High" is another work of director Zhang Yimou that hit the Oscars.
The heroine of the film also chose Gong Li, the heroine of the movie "Ju Dou", to play it.
Through the repressed feudal system and old ideas in the film, many viewers will feel suffocated during the viewing process.
However, this is exactly what the film wants to convey to the audience.
So, how does this story unfold?
Song Lian's sobriety
Song Lian was originally a college student, but unfortunately her father's business failed, and she could only become Master Chen's little wife.
This is also the only way in her life!
Song Lian, who had just entered the Chen Mansion, confronted the rules of this mansion.
Each wife has a yard, and the lord will light a red lantern in the yard of the lady and beat the feet of the lady when he goes to eat in the yard.
The pampered wife has the opportunity to order her favorite dishes.
Song Lian has just entered this strange world, she is very unfamiliar with everything, and she is also very resistant to Aunt Cao's beating.
However, after ten days in this courtyard, Song Lian's mind changed.
She hoped that she was favored, and she began to participate in this battle for Master Chen, which was also the beginning of Song Lian's assimilation.
Song Lian began to examine her enemies, and the eldest lady Yu was as old and decrepit as she no longer competed for favor.
The second wife, Zhuo Yun, is her guide in Chen's house, and she is always enthusiastic and positive.
The third wife, Mei Shan, is a Peking Opera opera and the most favored aunt before the master.
In addition, the maid Yan'er beside Song Lian was favored by the master, but she did not become an aunt's wife.
After understanding the enemy, Song Lian seemed to be more immersed in this woman's struggle.
She began to enjoy the sensation of beating her feet and lighting lanterns, and when she heard the sound of beating her feet from other yards, she became restless.
Just after Song Lian integrated into such a life, she found that her flute was missing, because the master thought it was given by a male classmate, so he burned it.
Song Lian had an awkward quarrel with the old man because of this, and only then did she know that the second wife, who had always been kind and kind, was actually a scheming person!
After falling out of favor, Song Lian chose to go off the rails, she pretended to be pregnant, which attracted the attention of everyone up and down the Chen Mansion and took the limelight.
It's a pity that Yan'er soon discovered the truth that Song Lian was hiding.
How can a fake become real?
After the old man knew the truth, he ordered the lights to be sealed, and the big red lanterns were covered with black covers, as if the last bit of light in the courtyard was also obscured.
Song Lian wanted to take revenge on Yan'er, but when Yan'er died because of her revenge, she was shocked and filled with regret.
When talking with the third wife, he talked about the private relationship between the third wife and Dr. Gao at home, and also told Song Lian's own feelings.
She felt that in the yard, they were like cats, dogs, rats, but not people!
Later, when she was drunk, Song Lian accidentally told the third wife and Dr. Gao's private relationship, which also sent the third wife to a dead end.
At this point, Song Lian finally knew what the "dead man's house" in the courtyard was for!
Song Lian seemed to be awake, she lit the red lantern in her room, and then the red lantern in the third wife's room.
After using the gramophone to release the voice of the third wife's usual singing, the people thought it was haunted, and they were finally scared!
After that, Song Lian went crazy, and the fifth wife of the old man also entered the door, and the courtyard of the Chen family lit the red lantern again.
This is how the film ends, but the sorrow of women is much more than that.
The domestication of Master Chen
There is only one figure of Master Chen in the film from beginning to end, and he has no frontal shots.
This is actually an ingenious idea, because Master Chen represents not only Master Chen, but a type of person in the feudal era.
They hold the power of life and death, they are the heaven of the women in the backyard, and they are also the source of all contention, the makers of the rules.
It was Master Chen who prescribed the rules for beating feet, lighting lamps, and ordering food.
Mr. Chen's approach has an academic name, called Paplov's dog.
He asked the wives in the backyard to hear the sound of a copper hammer coming from other yards, and when they saw the light of the red lantern, they formed a body reflection.
is like a college student like Song Lian, she was not used to competing with so many women for the favor of her lord at first.
However, she gradually fell in love with the pride of being beaten and lit, and she was proud of being able to order food.
So, she resolutely joined the struggle.
This is the genius of Master Chen, using the method of domestication, so that every woman accepts the rules and fights with each other for this.
The "foot beating" in the film always appears with the lantern, but it has a more unique role.
"Feet" were a very private existence in ancient times, and they were the second sexual characteristics of the human body in feudal times.
In ancient times, it was a three-inch golden lotus, which also meant that only the husband could see it.
Therefore, the existence of hammer feet here is a kind of explicit sexual innuendo.
And the expressions of enjoyment on the faces of the wives after beating their feet also allude to the expressions of enjoyment after the sexual activity is over.
In the film, the activity of beating feet has always appeared, every wife has to beat her feet when she is favored by the master, and the maid Yan'er also imagines being beaten.
Beating feet has become something that the women in this Chen family compound are fighting for.
In addition to the foot-thumping, there are many other metaphors and metaphors in the film.
Metaphors and metaphors
Throughout the film, summer, autumn, and winter are mentioned throughout the film, but there is no spring.
Spring is generally a time when everything grows and is full of life.
However, in such a decaying and festering place as the Chen family compound, how could there be vitality?
Therefore, there is no spring, no vitality, and not even a single plant in the Chen family's compound.
There are also the names of the characters in the film, which actually have meanings.
The first is Chen Baishun, the housekeeper of the Chen family, who is indeed a 100-obedient housekeeper who resolutely obeys Master Chen's orders.
The second wife, Zhuo Yun, "cloud" was originally a clean and pure thing, which was very in line with the audience's impression of the second wife at the beginning.
As the story develops, the second wife reveals her scheming true face, and "Cloud" becomes a kind of irony.
The third wife, Mei Shan, "Mei" is in full bloom in the cold, but the third wife died in the snowy winter.
The newly married fifth wife is called Wenzhu, and Wenzhu will only sprout in spring, but how can this Chen family compound without sunlight let Wenzhu grow?
Therefore, the ending of the fifth wife is self-evident, and in the end, she will become fertilizer in the Chen family's compound like a flower that has lost its nutrients.
And the fourth wife Song Lian, "lotus" is also a plant, and it is not good to live in the Chen family's compound.
A wife with a plant in her name, like a plant that needs sunlight to grow, has no future in a decaying yard.
The maid and the wild goose, the wild goose is a loyal bird, and the wild goose is also staring at a goal, to become the aunt and wife of the master.
However, the motive of the wild goose is not because of love, but because of the attraction of external materials, which can be regarded as a kind of irony of the "wild goose".
The existence of the eldest lady is a character who does not have much presence in the film, but she is the final victor of the Chen family's battle for wives and concubines.
Because only the eldest wife's son survived and grew up.
And Song Lian, mentioned in the film, lit all the lights in the third wife's room, and turned on the gramophone to play the third wife's voice.
People have never heard such a voice, and they have never seen the power of technology, so they will regard them as ghosts.
Therefore, what can really scare the Chen family compound is actually technology and the future.
The feudal system exists, the feudal ideology exists, and the awakened people are struggling.
But a new future is also coming!
epilogue
"The Red Lantern Hangs High" tells the story of the Chen family's compound, but it is not only the story of the Chen family's compound.
And Master Chen is not just a feudal bondage in ancient times, but can even refer to the material and spiritual needs in our hearts today.
In the beginning, we may all be Song Lian, and we think it's nothing more than that.
However, when I saw that everyone else had it and wanted to have it myself, I gradually began to fight myself, do I want it?
Do you want it?