Raise the Red Lantern

Raise the Red Lantern (大红灯笼高高挂, 1991) — watch online Zhang Yimou's acclaimed Chinese drama starring Gong Li. Set in 1920s China: nineteen-year-old Songlian drops out of university and enters a wealthy lord's compound as his fourth wife.

Every evening, red lanterns are lit above one of the courtyards — whichever wife the Master chooses that night. The privilege comes with foot massages, first pick at dinner, power over the servants. The other three wives scheme, flatter and inform on one another to earn it. Songlian arrives with contempt for all of it. She does not stay contemptuous for long.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, the picture made Zhang Yimou a name outside China and launched Gong Li as one of world cinema's great screen presences. Cinematographer Zhao Fei built each frame around red lanterns against grey stone — a palette that turns ritual into cage. Watch Raise the Red Lantern (1991) online on iFILM.