" ‘Red Sorghum’ … is a movie lover's thrill. You can sense that it's going to be from its first seconds, as a beautiful and extremely reluctant young country girl is prepared for her arranged wedding.” – Los Angeles Times
“Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s cup runneth over in ‘Red Sorghum.’ His images intoxicate your eyes. His sounds are tonics from a vivid world. You get so drunk on his artistic bouquet, you worry about driving home.” – Washington Post
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Already a renowned cinematographer for his work on such landmark Fifth Generation films as Yellow Earth, Zhang Yimou announced himself as a master director with this deceptively simple folk fable; the film also introduced the world to his muse and future wife Gong Li, who went on to become the most famous film actress to ever emerge from the Mainland. Set in the lead-up to the Sino-Japanese War, Red Sorghum tells the story of a young peasant girl, Jiu'er (Gong), whose parents sell her into marriage with an elderly winemaker. Attacked by bandits on the way to her wedding, Jiu'er is rescued by one of her palanquin bearers (Jiang Wen, sporting maximum swagger), who later returns and becomes her lover. Together they turn around the wine business she has inherited, but then have to grimly dig in to face the invading Japanese armies. From its bawdy beginnings to its tragic conclusion, where an unimaginable nightmare becomes all too real, Red Sorghum is above all a formidable visual accomplishment: every shot feels utterly original, every nuance of color a boldly symbolic flourish. "The cinematography in Red Sorghum has no desire to be subtle, or muted; it wants to splash its passionate colors all over the screen with abandon, and the sheer visual impact of the film is voluptuous" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times).
Xi’an Film Studio. Producer: Wu Tian-ming. Screenwriter: Mo Yan, Chen Jianyu, Zhu Wei. Cinematographer: Gu Changwei. Editor: Du Yuan. Cast: Jiang Wen, Gong Li, Dong Kun, Qian Ming, Chen Zhigang.
35mm, color, in Mandarin and Japanese with English subtitles, 91 min.
