Greatest Feminist Film Of All Time

I don't know why I feel compelled to post this at this time. Maybe it's because I identify with the lead character somehow. Maybe it's because I feel her fate. Maybe it's because I feel yours.

Feminism has become a dirty word and is many times misappropriated to define women "heroically" acting like men. Which, of course, still "proves" the male outlook on life in the end. Both male and female alike worship the male mentality of how the world should be. We are brainwashed from birth. But rarely is that mentality dissected with a passionate eye for the truth of who we are. In "Raise the Red Lantern" Yimou Zhang examines the myth of male superiority with shattering consequences.

The time setting for this is brilliant, set in China right on the cusp between the transition from ancient to modern. In 1920, many of the old barbaric attitudes towards male/female relationships were still alive in Asia even as fresh winds were blowing in liberation for the men. Eventually those winds would blow away the more egregious male mores but in this twilight time a male could have the best of both worlds.



The film is mostly shot within an estate of a rich and powerful lord. In it he houses his many wives, the newest of which is our main character played by the legendary Gong Li. She is the fourth wife, forced to marry at 19 before her life can even begin. We feel the loss of her talent from the world, reduced to a rich man's toy. The story revolves around the interaction of the women in an unquestioned male world - unquestioned even by them.

Director Zhang is brilliant in that he never shows a focused shot of the male lord, lest we think him a single person as opposed to a mentality. He is typically selfish, a product of the times and environment. He does all that is allowed by social customs and no more. But it's what is allowed that is so shocking, the insanity of the "normal".

In the end, it's the human impulse to live that upsets the apple cart, leading to horror in its repression. Mankind learns from its mistakes on one hand - we no longer burn witches at the stake - yet grabs new ones on the other. The brutality of the lord shown in this film is no longer tolerated in modern China, yet we still live in a world that fails to honor the feminine and the gentle. We tend to honor the hard and the unfeeling, repressing our own human impulses to live.

Like anything real, true feminism is about honoring life itself.


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