Raise the Red Lantern

Nineteen-year-old Songlian, a promising student whose family has been destroyed by her father's death, is forced to abandon her studies and marry into wealth, becoming the fourth and newest concubine of the aging, unseen Master Chen. Inside his walled estate, she discovers a household ruled by a merciless ritual: each night, red lanterns are lit outside the chambers of whichever wife the master chooses to visit, granting that wife privilege and status while the others are cast into cold irrelevance. Songlian is drawn into the orbit of her rivals, each shaped by years of fighting for the same scraps of favor. Determined at first to rise above the games, Songlian is gradually worn down by isolation and humiliation until she begins playing to win, trading secrets and favors to secure her place in Master Chen’s hierarchy. As the petty cruelty turns even more dire, Songlian is forced to confront what survival has cost her and everyone trapped inside these rituals.

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The 4K restoration was completed in 2024 at L’Immagine Ritrovata (Hong Kong / Bologna) using the original image and sound negatives under the supervision of director Zhang Yimou. A vintage positive print presented at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival, preserved in the Venice Biennale’s Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts, was used as a color reference to faithfully recreate the film’s original visual richness.