In 1920s China, women had few options. So following the death of her father, Songlian (Gong Li, "Memoirs Of A Geisha"), a beautiful nineteen-year-old college student agrees to marry a wealthy nobleman. She is to be wife number four at his estate, where daily life revolves around an ancient family custom: the master raises a red lantern outside the house of the wife with whom he desires to spend the night. On the surface, there is harmony between the wives, but trapped inside their gilded cages, with nothing to do but compete for their husband's favor, the four "sisters" are drawn into a web of petty rivalries that soon escalate into treachery...and tragedy.

...Fei Zhao's sumptuous, award-winning cinematography [is] among the best of the last several decades.

Frequent Yimou Zhang collaborator Li Gong stars as university-educated 19-year-old Songlian, who in 1920s China agrees to marry into the wealthy Chen clan after her father, a tea merchant, dies. She becomes the "Fourth Mistress" to 50-something Master Chen (Jingwu Ma), his face obscured or seen only in long shots throughout the film. Each mistress lives in her own house on the lonely, palatial estate.

Steeped in tradition and ritual perhaps hundreds of years old, the mistresses await their master's bidding each evening: a red lantern is placed in front of the door with whom he will bed with that evening.

Adapted from Su Tong's novel Wives and Concubines, the story primarily revolves around Songlian's relationships with her three predecessors as well as her maid, Yan'er (Lin Kong), with whom the Master also sometimes makes love and who had dearly coveted becoming his Fourth Mistress. The First Wife (Jin Shuyuan) is, like the Master, in her fifties, past her prime and thus wielding little power in the household other than as its symbolic matriarch. The Second Mistress, Zhouyan (Cuifen Cao), is kind and sociable upon Songlian's arrival, while both Yan'er and The Third Mistress, former opera singer Meishan (Caifei He), treat the new arrival with open contempt when the Master isn't around.

Though initially not particularly happy with her arranged marriage, Songlian gradually looks forward to her master's attentions and becomes distressed when, after a time, its benefits are casually taken away as he moves from one bed to another. She has no love for him particularly, other than perhaps to satisfying her occasional need for sex (and, eventually, motherhood), but rather it's something else.

Essentially, the film seems to be saying that, confined to such a limited universe with little to do, virtually nothing of their own (the Master has her father's flute, a treasured heirloom, burned when he wrongly assumes it was the gift of an ex-lover), and their identity stifled - virtually the entire film takes place on the grounds of the Chen estate - the women are reduced to fighting among themselves for the meager compensations being the selected mistress entails: foot massages and the privilege of selecting the dinner menu, among other things.

In the end they become so scheming and petty toward one another in trying to curry their master's favor that they're unable to see the extreme cruelty of the very arrangement, and his utter disregard for them as human beings.

The story has no illusions about the emancipation of these women. Though Songlian initially appears the fiercely independent, determined mistress who'll break the pattern of subservience (she carries who own luggage to the estate and insists on walking there rather than be driven in the family carriage), all her intelligence and assertion of her limited authority only makes her fall from grace that much more agonizing.

Parting Thoughts: Yimou Zhang's films, particularly Raise the Red Lantern, have introduced a very large number of western world audiences to Chinese cinema and culture. For their informative, fascinating depictions of rural country life, of familial and master-servant, peasant-official pecking orders and relationships alone his films would be worth watching. That they're also superb character studies that make you forget you're watching a movie and not there in the midst of it make them especially remarkable achievements...

Not unlike Abbas Kirostami’s films, the simplicity and elegance portray many hidden themes that hit with deep and lasting impact. Addiction, death, separation, birth, hardship, friendship, war, fortune are all explored with an adept level of un-cloying sentimental balance. A powerful script with excellent acting (Yimou’s wife Gong Li and Ge You) makes this a near perfect film (out of )… but lackluster ERA DVD. The picture quality was slightly better than ERA’s ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ (although the films colors not as vibrant, it was less fuzzy) but the subtitles were fraught with multiple spelling errors and dialogue inaccuracies (evidenced by my wife). I am also totally angered at the lack of sub-titles for the title cards. Although there are only a few they are extremely important to the story, but instead of translation we just see some Chinese characters on the screen. Arghhh!!

How ‘Pulp Fiction’ beat out this film at Cannes in 94’ is beyond me. I’m equally perplexed by Ebert’s 3 ½ / 4 rating. This film will easily move into my Top 10 Foreign language films of all time in my next update. I have never been disappointed by a Zhang Yimou film and this may actually end up being my favorite and he is quickly becoming my favorite director."