Comparison Paper

Raise the Red Lantern is a popular film directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and it is known for its adaptation by the late 20th century novel written by Su Tong. Both the film and novel revolves around political controversy in 1920’s China. Although summary plots from both versions of Raise the Red Lantern differ in terms of context, Zhang Yimou and Su Tong fulfilled their purpose of capturing their audiences’ attention towards the dark side of China’s traditional customs and history in the 1920s in different ways thought unimaginable.

One major different approach that Yimou took with Raise the Red Lantern was the way he changed the characters’ names from Su Tong’s novel. The main characters are the four mistresses, fourth mistress’s servant, and Chen Zuoqian. The names of the four mistresses are Joy, Cloud, Coral, and Lotus. In the film, the four mistresses have traditional Chinese names Yuru, Zhuoyun, Meishan, and Songlian, but their names can easily be distinguished as they are also identified as mistresses. Joy, the first mistress is known as Yuru; Cloud, the second mistress is known as Zhuoyun; Coral, the third mistress is known as Meishan; and Lotus, the fourth mistress is known as Songlian. As for the other roles of Raise the Red Lantern, Chen Zuoqian is simply known by Master Chen in the film. What seems quite interesting in the film is Master Chen’s facial identity is never revealed. One would expect a man who holds great prestige out of all the characters in Raise the Red Lantern to have his full identity shown. The name of Songlian’s personal servant in the novel is Swallow meanwhile she is known as Yan’er in the film. In the film, Yimou gives a good visual representation of the characters from the novel, but th...

... middle of paper ...

...he death of the third mistress in both media, the fourth mistress goes insane. The film and novel ends the same way as the master marries a new concubine who is to be his fifth mistress. The only difference of how both media shows the new marriage is their uses of seasons. The novel says “In the spring of the following year, Chen Zuoqian, Old Master Chen, took his fifth wife, Bamboo” (Tong 98). The film states the marriage of the fifth concubine and master takes place in the following summer instead of spring.

Despite the fact Yimou and Su Tong took different approaches in showing Chinese culture and its notorious concubine customs, they both captured the attention of their audiences in a captivating, yet powerful way. No matter what the differences are between the film and novel, both media have opened many eyes to the dark side of China’s history in the 1920’s.