Yimou Zhang’s Red Sorghum (1987) reminds me of a regional joke I heard quite a
bit when I was growing up. Adults would
often remind us kids, and each other, that if someone didn’t like the weather
in Central Illinois, they could wait ten minutes for it to change. Folksiness aside, their point was that it
wasn’t worth complaining about the weather, because it often changes so
frequently in the Land of Lincoln that it is feasible to conceive of a week in
which complaints of sweltering heat and biting cold might both be uttered. The only thing we resilient and sometimes frugal
Illinoisans can do is bear it, and hold tightly to our convictions not to touch
the thermostat until June (or November depending on the season). The Same approach might serve the viewer well
when taking on this film—Zhang’s directorial debut. If you don’t like the movie’s tone or mood,
relax, it will change shortly.
The story is told in retrospect by
the grandson of its protagonists, and begins on the wedding day of his grandmother,
a woman who, because of her birth date, comes to be known as Nine. Nine is being married off by her father to
the lord of a profitable winery that sits miles outside her feudal village. The lord is an aged leper, and Nine has no
romantic intentions for her husband to be, but because of her father’s insistence
she must marry him. After all, there is
her potential inheritance to think about, and a hefty sum, a goat, has purchased
her hand.
The lord sends his winery workers— a
rowdy bunch—as well as a hired hand, to carry his bride by sedan to his
gates. The men make light of the work,
jostling Nine in an attempt to get her to soil her bridal garments. However, the spirited march quickly changes
tones when a highwayman robs the merry band and attempts to kidnap their cargo. While I was slightly unclear as to the finer
points of this section of the narrative, it seems as though the hired man and
the robber were in cahoots, and the daring rescue that takes place amidst the
waving sorghum that surrounds the winery is staged. In any case, the man unexpectedly falls madly
in love with Nine, and for her part she reciprocates the feeling. Nevertheless, she is married away to the wealthy
leper.
Three days later, she returns home (as
is custom we’re told), but on her journey she is again abducted in the
sorghum. This time the hired man puts on
no pretense, and seduces Nine as the wind waves the eye-high crop about
them. When Nine later arrives at home,
she argues with her father about her marriage, just before learning that her
husband has finally succumb to his ailments. She returns to the winery as its new mistress,
and immediately sets about sanitizing it before trying to produce her debut
vintage. Her seducer has also heard of
the master’s death and arrives on cue to claim the woman, and the property,
that he feels are rightly his. The
scenes of conflict and the struggle for power at the winery which ensue are undoubtedly
the film’s best, and though they move briskly, the genuine respect and love
between the man, the mistress, and the workers all feel well established before
the picture takes another sharp turn.
There’s something for just about everyone who
loves movies in Red Sorghum, but I
still can’t say that I really liked it.
It’s occasional crass tone and late outbursts of heinous violence didn’t
bother me, but I couldn’t help feel that they weren’t quite appropriate, and
that perhaps they alienated an audience that the film had worked to build in its
early segments. Likewise, the film occasionally
strives for the feel of an epic, but at just 91 minutes I was never invested
enough to make that leap of faith that must
accompany such a change in scale. I
would have preferred more moments of intimacy over those of such great scope.
As such, I can’t quite figure out
who the intended audience of Red sorghum is. I don’t think the film would play well to the
typical period romance set, and it doesn’t include enough action or comedy to
place it squarely in either genre. This
alone does not detract from the film, and indeed I often seek out movies that
defy genre, but there is nothing else within this picture which anchors it
solidly enough to justify such an attempt.
So, I can write confidently that I enjoyed moments and segments of Red Sorghum¸ but never felt that those
moments added up to a solidly cohesive film.
As with the weather in Illinois, I had to be content with specific nice days
as opposed to a prolonged glorious season.
Language:
Mandarin
Runtime:
91 Minutes
Grade:
2.5 Hats Off
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