Raise The Red Lantern

The brutal realities of the dark places Su Tong depicts in this collection of novellas set in 1930s provincial China -- worlds of prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction -- belie his prose of stunning and simplebeauty. The title novella, "Raise the Red Lantern," which became a critically acclaimed film, tells the story of Lotus, a young woman whose father's suicide forces her to become the concubine of a wealthy merchant. Crushed by loneliness, despair, and cruel treatment, Lotus finds her descent into insanity both a weapon and a refuge. "Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes" is an account of a family's struggles during one momentous year; plagued by disease, death, and the shady promise of life in a larger town, the family slowly disintegrates. Finally, "Opium Family" details the last years of a landowning clan whose demise is brought about by corruption, lust, and treachery -- fruits of the insidious crop they harvest.

Lotus, a young college student is forced by her father's death to give up her studies and marry into wealth. RAISE THE RED LANTERN is her hauntingly beautiful, nightmarish tale, and that of the other three concubines who are competing for the sexual attentions of their master in a stifling, 1930s rural clan house. It explores a world where relationships rarely reach fruition, as emotionally stunted men thoughtlessly destroy the women in their lives. The conflicts that emerge as a result of this oppression and claustrophobia are seemingly insurmountable. But Lotus, the Fourth mistress, is defiant and presumptuous and has the shocking audacity to be good at - and actually enjoy - sex. In this environment insanity begins to emerge as both a weapon and a refuge, and relations between the concubines become increasingly tense...

When the internationally acclaimed film Raise the Red Lantern opened in the US, it played to packed theaters in cities nationwide and was nominated for an Academy Award. The extraordinary novella on which the film was based is now being published in English for the first time.

Hsiu-Chang Deppman puts landmark contemporary Chinese films in the context of their literary origins & explores how the best Chinese directors adapt fictional narratives & styles for film.

New Chinese Cinema: Challenging Representations examines the ‘search for roots’ films that emerged from China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. The authors contextualize the films of the so-called Fifth Generation directors who came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, and Tian Zhuangzhuang. Including close analysis of such pivotal films as Farewell My Concubine, Raise the Red Lantern, and The Blue Kite, this book also examines the rise of contemporary Sixth Generation underground directors whose themes embrace the disaffection of urban youth.

The Global Film Book is an accessible and entertaining exploration of the development of film as global industry and art form, written especially for students and introducing readers to the rich and varied cinematic landscape beyond Hollywood. Highlighting areas of difference and similarity in film economies and audiences, as well as form, genre and narrative, this textbook considers a broad range of examples and up to date industry data from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia and Latin America. Author Roy Stafford combines detailed studies of indigenous film and television cultures with cross border, global and online entertainment operations, including examples from Nollywood to Korean Cinema, via telenovelas and Nordic crime drama. The Global Film Book demonstrates a number of contrasting models of contemporary production, distribution and consumption of film worldwide, charting and analysing the past, present and potential futures for film throughout the world. The book also provides students with: a series of exploratory pathways into film culture worldwide illuminating analyses and suggestions for further readings and viewing, alongside explanatory margin notes and case studies a user friendly text design, featuring over 120 colour images a dynamic and comprehensive blog, online at www.globalfilmstudies.com, providing updates and extensions of case studies in the book and analysis of the latest developments in global film issues.

“A wonderful read—with all of a fairy tale’s leaps and turns and queer, vivid images” by the author of the international bestseller Raise the Red Lantern (The Observer). In Peach village, crying was forbidden. But as a child, Binu never learned to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faced a bleak future until she met Qiliang, an orphan who offered her his hand in marriage. Then, one day, Qiliang disappears. Binu learns that he has been transported hundreds of miles and forced to labor on a project of terrifying ambition and scale—the building of the Great Wall of China. Unwilling to live a life without him, Binu courageously decides to find and save her husband. Inspired by her love, she sets out on an extraordinary journey toward Great Swallow Mountain with only a blind frog for company. What follows is an adventure unlike any she could have ever imagined, in this “gripping, insightful . . . tragic tale of female strength and ultimately, love” (Time Out).

In this first critical study of films by Zhang Yimou in English, Wendy Larson plumbs the larger field of debate to suggest thought-provoking ways of thinking about the films and their relationship to Chinese culture.