Analysis of Red Sorghum Essay -- Red Sorghum Zhang Yimou China Movies

Analysis of Red sorghum WHEN Zhang Yimou do his directorial debut, Zhang Yimou made his directorial debut, Red Sorghum, in 1987, he was better known as a cinematographer whose talent had been crucial to the success of critically acclaimed films the like Zhang Junzhaos One and Eight (1984, released 1987) and subgenus Chen Kaiges Yellow Earth (1984). Not just did Red Sorghum become a seminal film of the fifth Generation, it withal won the G superannuateden Bear at Berlin in 1988, sightly the first mainland Chinese film ever to be awarded the highest honour at a major international film competition. Set in the mid-twenties and 30s in northern China, Red Sorghums narrative centres on the fate of a juvenility woman who is forced to marry a rich old leper but who eventually falls in love with a younger man. The motif of female oppression in feudal China is restate in Zhangs next two films, Ju Dou (1990) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991). The films form a loose triptych, linked no t only by similar thematic concerns but also stylistic elements. The latter include the luscious put on of colour, lighting and bold composition to create the sensuous images and metaphors which have distinguish Zhang as an original auteur. Equally prominent are the silences and spare conversation music and sound are used with precision -- nothing outdoor(a) is added. This article focuses on how visual and aural components in Red Sorghum are employed to enhance the dramatic aspect of the narrative as well as to convey philosophical and metaphoric meaning.RED sorghum is narrated as much through its storyline as by its nice images and aural qualities. The film is photographed by Gu Changwei (who also shot Chen Kaiges (Farewell, My Concubine) in Cinemascope the music is composed by Zhao Jiping, who has since composed the rest of the music scores for Zhangs films. The opening sequence establishes the vibrant mood and mythical melody of the film and introduces the themes of passi on and freedom through powerful imagery and music. It also establishes Zhang Yimou as a visual sensualist. In a deserted setting comprising mainly sand and stone, a strain of wedding music grows progressively louder. A traditional red sedan chair carried by a group of shirtless men, followed closely by a retinue of trumpeters and drummers, enliven the acid landscape. Inside the covered sedan chair, the pretty face of a young br... ...vineyard. The workers revolt against the Japanese, and after their uprising is crushed, the Japanese order two of the local anesthetic people skinned alive in front of the others. This sequence, shocking in its detail, is a dramatic change from the fable that went before. Red Sorghum perhaps can be read as a parable of Chinas development, or as a hymn in praise of the way the workers resisted the Japanese invaders. Western audiences probably are going to be more implicated in the melodrama and the overwhelming visual quality of the film. It is som e kind of mockery that when Hollywood switched over to cheaper and faster forms of making color films, classic Technicolor equipment was razed and sold to China - which now makes some of the best-looking color films in the world. The filming in Red Sorghum has no desire to be subtle, or muted it wants to splash its passionate colors all over the check with abandon, and the sheer visual impact of the film is voluptuous. If the story is first fair and then didactic, that is one of the films charms Hollywood doesnt make films like this anymore, because we have disregarded how to be impressionable enough to believe them.