In this 1991 adaptation of Su Tong’s novella Wives and Concubines, Gong Li plays a university-educated 19-year-old and the newest addition to the household of a wealthy older man. Ensconced in his sprawling, isolating compound, she jostles with the other wives for top dog status (the red lantern announces which woman the master has bestowed his favor on for the night) but soon realizes treachery is everywhere. An early work of China’s visionary director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), Raise the Red Lantern is as good as it gets: a divine melodrama, a chilling depiction of patriarchal dominance and female competition, and a devastatingly handsome picture, in color, form, and Gong Li’s exquisite visage. Newly restored. – Kimberley Jones
