- Actors: Li Gong, Jingwu Ma, Saifei He, Cuifen Cao, Qi Zhao
- Directors: Yimou Zhang
- Writers: Ni Zhen, Su Tong
- Producers: Fu-Sheng Chiu, Hsiao-hsien Hou, Wenze Zhang
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Universal
- VHS Release Date: 30 Oct 1995
- Run Time: 125 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000057IPR
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,384 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
107 of 109 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Just to add my voice to those many on the US Amazon site and the one other review of the DVD on the UK site, this transfer to DVD is truly aweful! Pirated DVDs filmed in cinemas on shakey handhelds have better picture and sound quality and the subtitles are laughable (the spelling isn't even consistent where they actually use the correct words!). The picture was scratchy, like watching a well used print at a rep cinema on a late night showing, the sound was distorted at times as recording levels don't seem to have been checked and there were lots of pops and clicks. This is very disappointing as I've been waiting for years for a DVD edition, then have to order it from the US and then when I get to show it to my friends who I've been raving about the film to, the experience of what should be one of the most beauitfully shot and truly tragic films is ruined. Can't someone in the UK put out a digitally remastered version? Or at least a decent quality transfer? Artifical Eye? This is cinema not a movie.
For the time being stick to the VHS version until someone releases a decent DVD of this great cinematic experience.
77 of 79 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I was very disappointed when I received this DVD.
This five star movie deserves a better DVD quality.
Bad translations, bad color and "snowy" pictures.
I own a VHS copy of this film which is better than this DVD.
Don't buy this release, wait for a better one!!!
This five star movie deserves a better DVD quality.
Bad translations, bad color and "snowy" pictures.
I own a VHS copy of this film which is better than this DVD.
Don't buy this release, wait for a better one!!!
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This must be one of the most refined and elegant Chinese films ever made. A beautiful young woman is pushed into becoming a junior wife of a rich man by her widowed stepmother who can no longer support her and finds that sharing not just a detatched husband but her whole life with her older "sisters" is a microcosm of suspicion and envy. The women in this cloistered world have only their companionship with each other to entertain them but they have beautiful clothes and small luxuries, like foot massage, when they are pregnant. The emotional deprivation becomes too much for one of the wives though with disastrous consequences.
What is intriguing about this film is the deft and subtle way that the viewer is enveloped into the world of the women and confronted with the same dilemma as the new bride to work out who are friends and enemies. As the story unfolds, the Hitchcock like terror underpinning their discipline becomes apparent but for one of them it is too late. I would strongly urge anyone to see this film - mostly especially if high quality world cinema is of interest to you.
It is a shame that the DVD of this wonderful film has been so clumsily produced that it seems pirated but you could always wait for an improved reprint (surely they must do one eventually of such an important item of Chinese cinema) or see the video. This is one not to be missed!
What is intriguing about this film is the deft and subtle way that the viewer is enveloped into the world of the women and confronted with the same dilemma as the new bride to work out who are friends and enemies. As the story unfolds, the Hitchcock like terror underpinning their discipline becomes apparent but for one of them it is too late. I would strongly urge anyone to see this film - mostly especially if high quality world cinema is of interest to you.
It is a shame that the DVD of this wonderful film has been so clumsily produced that it seems pirated but you could always wait for an improved reprint (surely they must do one eventually of such an important item of Chinese cinema) or see the video. This is one not to be missed!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
raise your eyes
This a great film, a real visual treat and a sensitive story beautifully told.
It is not a special effects film with flying arrows and leaping heroes - it's a close and... Read more
It is not a special effects film with flying arrows and leaping heroes - it's a close and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Doug
Exotic and hopeless; how does one describe great sadness?
Can inevitable and hopeless sadness ever be adequately described? Maybe, but not, I think, by amateur film enthusiasts or any but a few professional critics, and only then if they... Read more
Published on 10 May 2008 by C. O. DeRiemer
a landmark film - in aesthetic terms simply breathtaking
"Raise the Red Lantern" is an adaption by Ni Zhen of the 1990 novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong and was turned into a breathtaking movie by director Zhang Yimou and starring... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2008 by Amelrode
Finally, a decent R1 print
Earlier reviewers have covered some of the merits of this gorgeous film, and lamented the transfer. But the time for lament is now over. Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2007 by M. SCOTT
Superb Chinese film
This must be one of the most refined and elegant Chinese films ever made. A beautiful young woman is pushed into becoming a junior wife of a rich man by her widowed stepmother who... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2007 by M. Williams
Do not buy this DVD
This is a marvellous film, one of my all time greats, and I waited for this DVD with great anticipation. What a disappointment! Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2006
Absolutely Excellent
The director Zhang Yimou has done a great job, this video is a story about Northern China in the 1920's. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2004 by T.J.
Excellent film
This is a very beautiful drama set in feudal China and is about the claustrophobic world of a rich man's household. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2004 by jalapeno1000
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