“Raise the Red Lantern”

download (2) When I saw this movie in the 90s, I had no idea I would think about it for years. The plot revolves around a young university student, played by Gong Li, who is kind of “sold” as Fourth Wife of a wealthy dude once her family runs out of money to pay for her education. She is more enlightened than the average bear, so initially she looks down on the whole process of whichever wife the husband chooses to sleep with that night, gets a red lantern outside her room and this amazing foot massage after — and I suppose, the status that goes with being chosen. But pretty quickly, she gets sucked into the whole competition and is butting heads with Third Wife, a witchy, stunning opera diva nasty from the start. First Wife is a completely decrepit husk so Husband doesn’t bother hooking up with her, and Second Wife not much more, an older lady with a pleasant face, who welcomes Fourth Wife very warmly. What happens as the story progresses is that Fourth Wife learns that Third Wife is actually a good person, more frustrated than anything by circumstances, and that it is the kindly Second Wife “who looks as kind as Buddha but will stab you while you’re asleep” she needs to watch for. I cannot tell you, unfortunately, how many times I realized how insightful this movie was about people, how they are not what they seem, in a good and bad way.

When Third Wife (T.W.) and Fourth Wife (F.W.) become chummy, F.W. sees that T.W. is having an affair with the Husband’s doctor. Second Wife (S.W.) spills the beans, T.W. is taken in the middle of the night and murdered. As revenge (kind of), Fourth Wife animates T.W.’s abode with banners (can’t remember exact details) and plays a record of T.W. singing opera, which makes everyone, including S.W., think that T.W. has come back from the dead to haunt them all for her wrongful death. After completing her redecorating assignment, F.W. walks to and fro in T.W.’s old room, having completely lost her mind.

I don’t really know what kind of life advice that ending offers.

Spoiler alert: Sorry, this whole thing is a spoiler alert, but it’s still worth seeing the movie!!!

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