Cinema
Red Sorghum
紅高粱
Zhang Yimou · 1987
Synopsis
A man tells the story of his grandparents. Still very young, Jiu'er is married against her will to an old leper landowner. On the road, bandits attack her palanquin; one of the bearers, Yu Zhan'ao, saves her, and a passion is born between them. After her husband's mysterious death, Jiu'er inherits his property and takes over the sorghum liquor distillery, determined to win her independence.
Context
The film adapts stories by Mo Yan, co-author of the screenplay with Chen Jianyu and Zhu Wei, and its cinematography is by Gu Changwei. It is Zhang Yimou's first film; Senses of Cinema gives it as the first of the Fifth Generation to reach the Chinese general public, and it made Gong Li known. Completed in 1987, it was released in France on 1 February 1989, according to the Centre national du cinéma, and was re-released in cinemas in 2016.
Who it is for
A film an hour and a half long, in Mandarin; its final part shows the violence of the Japanese occupation.
Prizes and reception
Golden Bear at the Berlin festival in 1988, it received the best film award at the New York festival the same year, according to Encyclopedia.com.
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