Women's Fate and Aesthetic Pursuit in Raise the Red Lantern

. There are thousands of years of feudal marriage in Chinese patriarchal society, which means ancient Chinese women ’ s marriages were decided by the male family members instead of by themselves, and a man was able to marry a wife and several concubines. Lots of young women born into low-income families had to get married to wealthy older men to be concubines. Still, the life of being a concubine was tough, not only physically but also mentally hurt. The film Raise the Red Lantern describes a tragic story of a woman who turns from a college student into a psychotic abandoned concubine in the feudal Chinese patriarchal society, which reflects the detriment of the square-toed ideas and the yoke for the women in a highly gender-unequal marriage, especially in concubinage.


Introduction
The film Raise the Red Lantern is an early work of Zhang Yimou, a fifth-generation director in China, and the script is adapted from Su Tong's middle-grade novel "Wives and Concubines". The film tells the story of a college girl, Songlian, who is forced to marry into the Chen family for money.
Songlian was a nice and straightforward girl gradually eroded by feudal rituals into a madman. From the microcosm of a "small Chen house" to the big society of "polygamy," the movie criticizes the feudalism of the time when men were superior to women. The reality of the feudal rituals of the time was that women were inferior to men. In terms of red color throughout the film, it is easy to see that the color red runs throughout the entire movie, setting up the film's storyline. The color red is the color of celebration, and Zhang Yimou's unique use of the color red embellishes the plot. The red lanterns in the film portray the courtyard as a depressing and gloomy cage, with the women inside caught in a whirlpool of hammer feet. The women inside are caught in a vortex of hammer feet, each fighting with the other, staging a "courtroom drama. Red lanterns have a strong symbolic meaning, representing the bondage of women under feudal rituals and the hegemony of a male-dominated society.
This paper will take Songlian, Yan'er, Zhuoyun, Meishan and the First Wife as the entrance to the film, and combine the film's camera language, music and colors to explore how the film presents the tragedy of women in the feudal family struggle in a narrative way, and what ethical and human connotations it has.

Songlian
As the protagonist in Raise the Red Lantern, Songlian's attitude changes significantly in the Chen Mansion. When Songlian first appeared, she still had two thick, large twisted braids and a martyred girl's expression on her face. She was a person who had calculus in her heart and who cared about love. Her words seemed to say that she wanted to marry someone she loved, but if Songlian could not, she would marry a rich man, even as a young wife, which is a dingy attitude. When she walked into the mansion, her eyes were full of pride and disdain. However, the camera shows her squeezed at the root of the wall, and she is too tiny and invisible. Songlian even avoided the palanquin that went to pick her up and walked alone on foot to the Chen Mansion nor let the butler help her carry her things because she resented it all. She is still young; the mansion is profound, dignified and austere. No one is seen, only the sound of footsteps along the way. She passed through the door after door in it, and these were the paths she would walk for the rest of her life. At the beginning of her entry, she did not even know how to fit in. The lamp was carried into the courtyard, lit, lit, hung, a cadre of people with expressionless faces, the empty courtyard resounding with the echoes of every movement. A few women came in and said, "according to the house rules, and you need to wash your feet, pound, comb your hair and change your clothes. " It is like a complete ceremony. Her face with trepidation, the courtyard's dark orchid color, which has the lantern's red. Like a cave of hidden murder. Songlian felt that the master was very gentle; whether it was asking whether the foot pounding was comfortable or asking her to come over and take a closer look was a gentle voice, only a wise person can peer behind the killing machine.
The force slowly erodes a person's edges, and she was still young compared to this mansion. She sees her long loneliness, like her tears in the mirror, only lanterns accompanying them to appreciate. Space and people are so closed. Even if one has read books, those studies are not helpful here; intelligence and learning are not proportional. Songlian thought she was brilliant but did not know and understand the world; she just accepted Zhuo Yun's rejection of Meishan by intuition and did not hide her dissatisfaction when frustrated. Songlian could not have insight into the philosophy here. Songlian only knew that she suddenly became a concubine and seemed like she should be the master or at least higher than a maid, but she did not know that her position was far from stable and could collapse at any time. She also could not accept the master and Yan'er's Stealing love, and while she was still wandering, not knowing who she was. She did not know that since the master could have one wife and four concubines, then stealing love from a maid was not a big mistake that could not be tolerated. It was only when pounding feet rang through the compound like a sieve that she realized she was beginning to need this thing. She even found that she could not light the lamp to eat what she wanted. She finally understood somewhat, so when someone asked again why college was not finished, Songlian's answer was no longer that her father was sick and could not afford to pay, but what was the use of studying; it was not a garment on the master. Furthermore, when she finds her name on the Muppet, Zhuo Yun's word, she finally learns that her survival is so much more of a struggle. She slowly began to metamorphose and fake her pregnancy, a tactic she was not very clever at. Nevertheless, she was still enthralled with self-appreciation when the long light was lit.
Since Songlian is an educated college girl, she carries with her a particular new feminine character that is incompatible with the heavy, repressed, feudal Chen family. Songlian refused to give up herself but had to give up herself. After she refuses the master's unreasonable sexual demands, she abandons her reason and beliefs and submits to his insults, degradations, and oppression of male power. One conflict creates one compromise after another, and she obsessively insists on investigating the secret of the dead man's well, self-doubt, self-denial, her pressure and the pressure of the outside world clamp down, eventually leading to her mental disorder. "Sitting withered under a wisteria stand, sometimes circling the ruined well and talking into it." When Songlian enters the Chen house, she has to struggle to gain an identity even though it is against her heart's desire, but her way is not in line with the rules of the Chen family compound, and her efforts on the social level end in failure. She went crazy, but it was in the form of madness that she told the truth, returning to her original pure nature and insistence on independence; madness was her resistance to preserving herself and asserting herself. The snow-covered high platform, the "haunted house" that had been heavily locked and guarded by Songlian, was pushed open, meaning that the door to love and freedom was always open, the snow-covered all the dirt and the pure and beautiful things in human nature returned to Songlian. After that, Songlian said to the master with a firm look, "You kill!" Indeed, the Chen House was deprived of not only the new life but also many beautiful things in human nature -love, freedom, trust, warmth, and dignity. It turned women into "pigs", "dogs", "men's clothes" and "pigs". It turns women into "pigs," "dogs," "men's clothes," "tools of the family," and "everything, just not human." The women were suspicious of each other and turned against each other.
Furthermore, Songlian is finally going to end this humiliating life. Just as she walked into the Chen house, she lifted the humiliating lantern punishment imposed on her, lit the lamp herself, and no longer had to wait for a man to call her! In the last scene, Songlian returns to the white dress she wore when she entered the Chen family, completing her return to her identity as the fourth wife of the Chen family, which she did not identify with when she entered the house.

Yan'er
Yan'er is a servant in the Chen Mansion, and she is so delightful that the lord likes her, which leads her too long to be the fourth concubine. Yan'er matured prematurely, and when she saw Songlian roll up her sleeves to wash her hands, she felt such a resemblance between this new girl and herself. They were equally young, seemed to be from the same family, and they even had the possibility of becoming friends for a moment. However, when the "Fourth Mistress" cried out, she almost defended herself by shutting her out. She felt sorry for herself and felt that her fate resulted from one new wife after another. Her illusions were repeatedly shattered by these new wives, who she felt were similar to her but did not understand why she could not replace her. Her most distinctive label is longing, which is so straightforward that there is not even fear in her eyes when she sees Songlian enter the room while cheating on him with the master. The straightforward gaze seems to be doing something big and righteous. Her longing was so fundamental that even when she was publicly disposed of for lighting the lamp, she still showed no remorse. She stubbornly knelt in the snow, always refusing to admit her mistake. She longed, without any shame, because she felt that her longing was justified, almost like an ideal. Yan'er lights her lantern and imagines herself intoxicated as the sound of the wives' foot-pounding resounds in the courtyard. She was too young to be quickly drawn in and sacrificed by Zhuo Yun, so she was not allowed to turn her resentment against Songlian because she longed. Yan'er did not know whom she should blame until her death, and if she did, it was "the old rules of the house for many years"; she did not understand until her death that the long door at a stone's throw closed Ajiao and that there is no north or south in life.
Songlian eventually becomes more and more terrible in this struggle between women; she sees all the women in the Chen family compound as her worst enemies and uses all cruel means to vent the hatred in her heart. When she found out that Yan'er, a maid of lower status than her, was also dreaming of the wife and had an affair with the master, she immediately took fierce revenge, "Songlian said, I don't have the strength to beat you, it's dirty to beat you with my hands. You also do not blame me ruthless, this is called the way to treat others ...... Yan'er cried for a long time, suddenly wiped his eyes, while choking and said, I eat, eat on eating. Then she grabbed the sheet of grass paper and stuffed it into her mouth, emitting a heartbreaking dry vomiting sound. Songlian watched coldly, not feeling any pleasure, she somehow felt chilled, and revolted badly. Bitch." Under this inhuman torture, Yan'er eventually died at Songlian's hands. At this point, Songlian had no compassion, she always felt that women like Yan'er deserved to die, but she did not know that Yan'er's end also foretold her end. Songlian's inhuman abuse of Yan'er fully reveals Songlian's sick heart, and this sick heart is incredibly pathetic. In Su Tong's writing, the deteriorating relationship between women of the same sex and the recurrence of tragic fate is primarily due to women's human weaknesses and lack of values.

Meishan
Meishan is the third wife of the Chen Mansion, a woman who loves to wear red clothes. She is a ruthless and brave woman, but she does not plot against others; as soon as Songlian enters the Chen Mansion, Mei Shan gives her a hard time, but she is the one who gives her heart to Songlian in the Chen Mansion. Meishan is the one who sympathizes with Songlian after the master sealed Songlian's lantern. Mei Shan is a famous actress, old in the accident. She has been in the Chen House for many years and has much experience in the struggle, until her death, in the battle with the poisonous second wife, she is the upper hand; she has a son, a son who is pleasing to the master, her position in the Chen House is secure. However, Meishan had the most tragic end. The master executed her because she cheated with a man, which was the biggest taboo for her as an aunt in the Chen House.
Mei Shan would not have been unaware of what awaited her when her affair was discovered, but she continued to pursue the love of her heart, even at the cost of her life. Mei Shan is often dressed in red in the film, like a bride, and her costume is also red, which symbolizes the pursuit of love and freedom that is always burning in her heart. Despite the oppression, dullness, rivalry and rules of the Chen House, Mei Shan always kept her desire for love and freedom of choice in her heart. The "haunted house" where Mei Shan was executed is at the top of the Chen Mansion, and the "haunted house" has also buried the lives of two cheating aunts of the previous generation. In fact, in the Chen Mansion, the women's pursuit of love and freedom has always been unceasing. "Life is precious, but love is more valuable. If it is for the sake of freedom, both can be thrown away." The "haunted house" is at the highest point, which symbolizes that death has the highest value in this environment, and they die because of resistance, for the sake of the beauty in their hearts -love and freedom. In this sense, they are all warriors and shine with humanity's light.
This resistance is not a Zhuo Yun style of exhaustion, but not to submit to the position of a feudal aunt. Whether singing and enjoying herself in the courtyard or having an affair with Dr. Gao, she is as flamboyant and sharp-edged as the colorful clothes she wears.
Because Meishan is still young, the Master maintains a strong interest in her, so she does not have to struggle like Zhuo Yun for fear of losing. She is beautiful, with an ambiguous smile at the corner of her mouth with a subtle taste of sexual desire. Meishan has a life of her own and a son for the Chen family, which is her basic security; Meishan is innovative and is the one who knows the rules and the nature of the Chen House best, and because of this, she does not exhaust herself to fight it. Meishan also retains as much of her true purity as possible: her sincerity and meanness are exposed, her resistance is too superficial, and she calls the lord away on Songlian's wedding night and sings loudly in the courtyard in the early morning when she cannot be called away. She does not hide when she does not want to be polite, she does not even bother to say hello, and she does not smile as attentively as Zhuo Yun does when she lights the lamp, like the First Mistress and Zhuo Yun both pinch dishes for Songlian in front of the Master at the dinner table. She does not love the Master, and she does not lack love. Her resistance is not a need of her own but has become a necessary habit in the Chen House. She does not hide her loneliness or her fantastic beauty. She is the most authentic person in the compound, singing on the empty stage, not stopping because Sonia came up to provoke, resounding, loud, and soaring. The play is sung, and the face of the grief and helplessness is also naked; she will not politely stop talking. The play is also the same. "You want to listen, but I don't want to sing." This is her attitude towards life. This is Meishan, who is fighting her niche, and she still has the strength. She is within the rules and outside the rules. She is not an adherent of the rules, just walking carefully along the edge of the rules. She saw it most; clearly, the play was well done to deceive others, do not do well can only deceive themselves, even they cannot deceive when they can only deceive the ghost. She originally wanted to have been able to cheat others, at least to cheat themselves, but in the end, even ghosts cannot cheat; the result of the struggle is that the fragrance dies.

Zhuoyun
Zhuoyun is the second concubine of the Chen Mansion. Zhuoyun's desire is excellent; she is constantly struggling, but this active struggle is a kind of submission to her status as an aunt. She dwells with it and cannot extricate herself; this is her life's work. Compared to the first wife, she is more like a housewife; she knows the house's philosophy, enlisting new people and isolating and excluding them. Zhuoyun lives outside as a façade.
Zhuoyun is the only one who knows how to smile modestly at each other when lighting the other courtyard lights. However, she is the only one with a hard time in her heart. Zhuoyun is the one who most sincerely cares about the master, and she will give Songlian dishes in front of the master because the master says everyone should take good care of her. Zhuoyun will go to Sonny to get her hair cut with a bit of flair because the master said it would look younger with shorter hair, but caring does not mean she loves it. She does not know how to love, and it is her need. Zhuoyun has nothing beyond BCP Social Sciences & Humanities

ERSS 2022
Volume 20 (2022) that, but she understands which courtyard lights the lamp and which courtyard can order the food. The wife who lights the lamp will become even the subordinate who looks higher, and lighting the lamp means she can get a natural position in the Chen House. She is the most persevering one. She submits to the positioning as a man's clothes and takes all efforts as an ideal. She not only preserves herself, as the first wife did, but also strives for more, and she solves all the obstacles in silence. She did not know that she was about to grow old, and no matter how much she struggled, the best she could do was to become the first wife.
Once there was a heated debate question, "If Songlian undergoes psychotherapy, what will be considered a successful treatment? Is it possible to treat her like the Second Mistress Jorun?" If it is possible to treat Songlian like the Second Mistress, there will be nothing but despair and death. Nobody knew what path the Second Mistress took before she became the Second Mistress, but by the time I saw her, she had let the evil and hypocrisy of human nature fill her life without any guilt. Zhuoyun had wholly identified herself with her social status as a subordinate to the master and was relentlessly fighting for it. The second wife is undoubtedly the best socially adapted of the four wives, but in a "cannibalistic" social environment, good adaptation also means being swallowed up; the good part of human nature is swallowed up.
The second wife, Zhuoyun, is the only person who has been friendly to Songlian since Songlian entered the Chen family. As soon as Songlian arrived, she fought with Yan'er, who wanted to be the fourth wife and was treated coldly by the first wife and robbed of the master by the third wife. The second wife is the only one who treats her with courtesy and warmth. Underneath her tough exterior, Songlian also hides her desire for love and care. So, when she first met the Second Mistress, she bluntly told her about her family background. She is prepared for war everywhere in the Chen Mansion, and she thinks that the person who is least likely to do bad things to her and the person she needs to guard against is the Second Mistress, who is the only good piece of land in her current life in the Chen Mansion. However, when she learned that the person who wanted to curse her to death was the Second Mistress, Songlian's whole body trembled, and her whole heart was plunged into cold despair and fear. She could not feel any warmth or trustworthy people in the Chen Mansion. The despair and fear aroused Zhuoyun's anger and hatred, and the loss of favor from the master also increased her uneasiness. Her clothes became a very bright red and black, signaling her inner turmoil and conflict. Songlian unwisely cuts off the second wife's ear and regains the master's favor by faking a pregnancy. However, the false pregnancy is finally revealed, and the sealing of the lamp punishes her. In order to take revenge on the Second Mistress, she uncovered that Yan'er had lit the lamp in her room, and Yan'er was punished and died. Songlian becomes the indirect executioner in the end.

The First Wife
The first wife was not even named, and her eyes did not glow. She was the only wife whose face did not change when she heard which courtyard was lit because she knew it could not be her. She lived unharmed in the Chen House until she was that old and had long since been sharpened to a hardened heart. Also, no one knows how old she is, whether she is a dying man or because she has lost hope. The wrinkles on her face are only vaguely reminiscent of the older man's years. The first wife's words are few, her expressions are few, and her most profound reaction is only to admit that she has long been an antique, predicting that the Chen family will sooner or later be defeated in the hands of this generation.
The First Wife is always dressed in black solemnity throughout the film, and several close-ups of her face demonstrate her severity and harshness. Because she is a specimen of rules in the house, she is a woman sealed in black and cannot escape, "Sin, sin!" Helplessness and complaint from the heart of a woman who recognizes the compound.
Interestingly, when she slowly and slowly conversed with Songlian word by word, the two maids in the background also slowly and slowly wiped the objects in the room, although the young girls, but in slow motion. Interestingly there is also identity confirmation, the words between the lines, the first wife is more like a mother. In this condensed compound of feudal China, the First Mistress painstakingly manages. Her desire has worn off as she moves from Songlian-style wandering, into Meishan-style resistance, through Zhuoyun-style submission. When she cannot possess her husband, the best state of mind is to think of him as a son. At this point, desire disappears. She can preserve herself. When Songlian is disgusted with her old-fashionedness, she does not know that the best survival technique in this courtyard is the death of the heart.

Analysis and Camera Technique
The theme of the film is intense and thought-provoking. Each character in the film is a victim of the rules and an enforcer of the rules. Songlian first steps into the Chen Mansion, standing below the Chen Mansion's family motto and then being led into the Chen Mansion by the butler, crossing one threshold after another, passing through wall after wall. The film follows the subjective shots: the people are getting smaller, the courtyard is getting bigger, and the house is getting darker. Then comes a close-up shot of Songlian's diminutive figure against the backdrop of a seal-script wall inscribed with rituals and morals in the Chen family compound, signifying that her fate is to be imprisoned for the rest of her life in a prison built by these ancient traditions, foreshadowing the power of feudalism and the inability of people to break through its cage when they enter the compound. In the considerable depth of field and closed composition, it is suggested that Songlian is walking into a bottomless abyss where the rules are about to overwhelm her, and there is no way back. The most common word in the Chen Mansion is "This is the ancestor's rule," and everybody, including the servants, the butler, the concubines, and the master, always says it. The new wife has to visit the old ancestors, the lord's wife and his formal concubines, which is a rule as well; if the red lanterns are up in front of someone's house, she will be treated to do foot massage, and the lord will stay in her house this night. This is the rule; those who break the rule will be punished by kneeling for stealing lanterns, "dying of illness," and Mei Shan being hanged in the house of the dead for having an affair and cheating on the lord. In the house of the dead, she is hanged, Songlian's false pregnancy is sealed with a lantern, and she eventually goes crazy. In the compound of the Chen House, the lord, several wives, and the definition of this rule has long been blurred between them, who are all enforcers and victims.
In the film Raise the Red Lantern, the composer uses the solid and mellow "national" Peking Opera music as the material, which runs through the entire plot and connects all the characters. By using the music form to show the tragic lives of five different women under the oppressive situation of men, it better strengthens the film's symbolic art and deeper meaning. The Peking Opera singing and percussion give the audience some solid aural stimulation, which is latent in the audience's memory. Nevertheless, the deep meaning or context that is artificially created in the art form evokes the viewer's memory, which gives the viewer infinite space for imagination and even makes the viewer wander out of the body.
Finally, director Zhang Yimou's camera use is also to perfection so that the audience can better penetrate the characters' hearts and experience their inner sadness. At the beginning of the film, (fixed shot, close-up. In the dialogue between Lin and her mother, the director abandons the traditional way of shooting the dialogue and keeps the camera fixed on Songlian. The scene is a close-up, focusing on showing the inner world of Songlian. In the dialogue between Songlian and her stepmother, Songlian's tone reveals aggression, dissatisfaction and resistance, but the dialogue ends with Songlian agreeing to get married. Throughout the dialogue, the camera remains static and does not switch back and forth between Songlian and her stepmother. The audience never sees her stepmother but feels the image of this money-hungry and powerful feudal patriarch and Songlian's inner helplessness through the off-screen voice. The same is true of the film's master. Throughout the film, he appears several times, but never in close-up, and the audience never has a chance to see his face clearly (mainly because of the lights).
The director uses backlighting and side backlighting to achieve a silhouette and semi-silhouette effect, which belongs to the lighting category), and the director uses backlighting and off-camera voice in empty shots to show this character. However, his figure is everywhere in the film, just like the dark feudal forces, although apparently untraceable but visible everywhere, bringing an invisible depression to the audience. Thus, it can be seen that the director's flexible use of the camera plays a crucial role in making the audience better appreciate the inner activities of the characters.
Moreover, the older man's absence of their faces in the camera represents not their individuality but their commonality, a symbol of feudal power and authority in the feudal era. They are the symbols of feudal power and authority. The film alternates between warm and cold tones. In the warm tones used for the Chen Mansion during the daytime, the audience does not see warmth but only desolation and death. All they see is desolation and deadness. After entering the house, the butler asks Lin to go to the entrance to listen to the master's arrangement. In a panoramic view, Songlian and the housekeeper are in the courtyard's shadows, and the sunlight is above the eaves. However, the house closest to the sky in the Chen Mansion is the house of the dead. This also implies that if the people of the Chen Mansion want to pursue Baiyu, there is only one way to die. At night, the entire Chen Mansion blends into a cold blue. The red color of the lanterns makes the Chen Mansion even eerier. The red color of the lanterns makes the house even more gloomy. The warmth and coldness of the lanterns echo the coldness of the house. On the wedding night, the master asked Songlian to take a lantern and shine a clear light on himself, commenting, "Foreign students are something different," which sets the tone for the position of women in the family or the position of women in a maledominated society. As the saying goes, "Wives are like clothes" for the master. Songlian is just another clothing for him, an object of curiosity. In the eyes of the master, women do not have a prominent position. The master in the film is always a black shadow, which symbolizes the epitome of feudal patriarchy rather than a specific individual. The master is the emperor in "The Golden Bough," and Meishan and Songlian suffer the same fate as Erchun, Yuying, Ru Fei, and An Xi -men have absolute power over women, and women have to win their position in the family by gaining men's affection. However, in this harsh and cold environment, the women do their best to please the men but cannot help but love a million, let the sparks of love bring themselves to death and madness.
The color in the film is divided into color light and pigment. Color light is mainly through the color filter to the entire lens or a part of the lens plus a layer of color, the other color we call pigment is the subject itself is the color of the substance of the light brought by the reception. The color tone of the film Raise the Red Lantern tends to be a more fabulous shade of blue and gray, in contrast to the red lantern, which appears to be a more visually striking color throughout the film. Thus, leaving a deep visual impression on the audience and echoing the title of the film, "The Red Lantern Hangs High," but the red lantern hanging high in the air does not illuminate the life of the courtyard. However, the red lanterns hanging high in the sky do not light up the life of the house but rather envelop it under a more perverse social system. Usually, the color red appears as an element of enthusiasm and joy. However, in Zhang Yimou's "The Red Lanterns Hanging High," it appears as an eerie and frightening color element, contrasting sharply with the festive feeling initially interpreted. When Songlian's wedding night is filled with red lanterns, it is joyous rejoicing but also an unpleasant contrast to the non-celebration below -the red color introduces her to an invisible struggle between her concubines. At the time of Songlian's false pregnancy, the lanterns, all red, take on an ironic meaning. It is no longer a simple "long light" but a sign of the inescapable release of life's repression. The third wife, Mei Shan, is a representative of the character who is always flamboyant, with her giant red costume, big red cotton clothes, and big red makeup, all of which make people feel a sense of madness in this sultry woman who wants to break through her strict explosive power amid the rules. The red color in the film becomes a kind of articulation for the remarkable transformation of Songlian's character, which shows her youthfulness, exuberance and defiance to the fullest. Red becomes the most dazzling color in the film but also the most ironic color in the film. In the dark square door frame and attic, red shows the joy and pain of life heartbreakingly. The emotions and imagery illustrated by the red color complement the overall color palette of the film, giving a sense of genuine experience and emphasizing the characters' resistance to their circumstances and fate. Songlian tries to fight against her fate through her efforts. However, the struggle seems so powerless, even full of sexual catharsis, human perversion, and sadness of fate, with a lot of gray elements, making people feel society's sadness to a certain extent. The color red, which is Zhang Yimou's favorite color, is also one of the critical elements of the film, be it the ubiquitous red lanterns or the red elements interspersed in it. Red has always been a color of particular significance here, often representing fire, passion, and bravery, but bloody red also seems to represent repression, killing, and resistance, where the red is more of a kind of suppression, a kind of helplessness when life is waiting to bloom. On that snowy winter day, the red lanterns gave us not warmth but a sense of excitement to challenge life.
The film focuses on revealing the social relations of that era and then reveals the social tragedy behind the social relations to tell the story, portray the characters, and express the inner world of the characters, which is the purpose of Raise the Red Lantern.
At the movie's end, the Chen Mansion welcomes the fifth concubine, a young girl with shiness on her face, just like Songlian did. The yard of the Chen Mansion is also as quiet and dead as a doornail, which hints there will be one crazier woman in the feudal marriage and stuck in the endless Chen Mansion. The film takes "summer," "autumn," "winter," and "summer" as a cycle but only misses "Spring," the season of hope and life, is missing. If we talk about the social aspect, this is a cycle without hope. The fifth wife has entered the door, and a new performance round is about to start, but nothing seems to change.

Music
The film's musical treatment is worth mentioning. The main character Songlian, dressed in white and black, walks through the woods as an innocent college student from the external world of black and white and the bright blue sky, carrying a rattan suitcase, towards the Chen family home, intentionally going against the bridal party welcoming her. Amidst the sound of the Hebei folk music "Blowing Song," she slowly enters the deep courtyard of the mansion with its carved and painted tiles and winding paths without fear. It also echoes the fact that Mei Shan will die a tragic death in the house of the dead.
The opera Mei Shan sings after Yan'er's death is called "Peach Blossom Village": It is not because I have told you what to say. You must not raise your voice or shout; you must listen to and see all directions. "This is Mei Shan's advice to Songlian in the Chen House must learn to be patient and watch what is said. After Mei Shan's death, Songlian played a record of Mei Shan's opera. The name of the record is "The Pavilion of the Royal Tablet": "Plotting and poisoning, losing conscience, repudiation is like a killing field...Better than you. "Here, we are not only reflecting the tragic fate of Mei Shan but also representing all the women who were brutalized by the feudal system. After Yan'er was punished, the second courtyard was lit, and the third wife sang "Peach Blossom Village" on the roof of the building -Xipi running water: It is not because I told you to tell me what to say, but because you are dumb and panicky. This night is not the same as the moon in the west room, and you should be careful, do not be frivolous. The relationship between your lovebirds in distress, forever in the pond. The wrong love has already created waves; how can you be careless? You are again absurd. The drums are beating on time, don't wander at the entrance of the peach blossom village. You must not raise your voice and do not shout. You must see all directions and listen to all directions. The third wife saw Songlian before the end of the song "Listen to all directions" there are still a few lines, but the film is not finished because the meaning to be expressed in the words of the play is evident. The first two lines are exactly the tone of the people in the film, a kind of friendly scolding, and the tone and emotion are precisely in place; the third line, in order to echo the previous "Hongniang" singing, refers to "the west wing waiting for the moon"; the fifth and sixth lines, "the mandarin ducks will always stay in the pond The fifth and sixth lines, "The Mandarin ducks will always stay at the pond," are a reminder of Songlian's goal in life; the following few lines are also a reminder and advice to Songlian. This oratorio is aptly combined with the film's plot, truly reflecting Songlian's lack of understanding of the world and the shrewdness of the Third Mistress. The curtain falls on the false glory that Songlian has faked for herself. Meishan's room was filled with singing "The Pavilion of the Imperial Monument," sung by Songlian on the phonograph after she got punishment and passed away. This time, the song's last two lines were sung with a crying head, "My son has a mother! Who knows that he is suspicious of the tide!" This line is obvious and seems to be the lament of Meishan. Since childhood, my parents have been spoiled, and I married Wang Chang on the 15th day of my life. Since you have read poetry and books, you do not think about it, but you are not a willow fluttering with the wind. It is difficult to measure the wind and rain, and there is no need for the sun and moon to shine in the dark room. The conspiracy and the poisonous scheme lose conscience. The letter of repudiation is like a killing field. The first four lines of this stanza are a single character.The first four lines are sung by a single person. In comparison, the following six lines are sung by a female chorus and repeated three times, which is not so much the Third Mistress' rebuke of the Master and her accusation of the Zhuoyun but rather Songlian's inner cry.

Conclusion
The tragedy of women's humanity and fate in Raise the Red Lantern is not only the result of China's long-standing feudal culture but also the lack of self-identity of women themselves. The power of feudal, patriarchal culture is not only reflected in the devouring and destruction of women's fate but also in the killing and distortion of women's hearts. The dregs of feudal ideology, such as hierarchy, male superiority and female inferiority, were not eliminated with the fall of feudal dynasties but often showed their dark and powerful historical inertia. Therefore, instead of saying that the women in Su Tong's novels cannot escape the fate of tragedy, it is more likely that they cannot escape from the "dark well" constructed by the feudal culture, which is dominated by male discourse.
In addition to the deep-rooted feudal, patriarchal ideology, women's lack of self-identity, lack of female subject consciousness and slavish thinking are the burdens that prevent women from growing up and getting rid of their difficulties. Women's living space is often cramped and dark, and the struggle between women is cruel and intense compared to the pressure from the male world. Women have unexplainable resentment towards the same sex and even themselves. Such self-denial and mutual destruction reveal the crisis of women's identity. In the Chen family compound, no amount of snow can cover up the horror and bloodshed that the women perform with their lives. In the feudal, patriarchal culture, women's social role has long been alienated into "things," Women need to please men with their bodies and beauty. More and more women are becoming comfortable with their destiny, changing from "slaves in the body" to "slaves in mind," consciously submitting to male discourse and evaluating themselves and their homosexuals according to the male value system.
The film is not only conscious of the powerful forces of Chinese feudal history and culture that women face but also aware of the multiple human weaknesses of women themselves