Raise The Red Lantern (1991) Rating: Starring: Gong Li, He Caifei, Cao Cuifeng, Jin Shuyuan, Ma Jingwa Director: Zhang Yimou Category: Drama, Foreign Studio: MGM / UA Subtitles: English, Spanish, French Length: 125 mins Want to buy?           From Zhang Yimou (Hero) "China's most exciting director" (Los Angeles Time) and celebrated screenwriter Ni Zhen comes an Oscar-nominated masterpiece of stark beauty and fatal intrigue. Originally banned in mainland China for its dark depiction of Chinese society, Raise The Red Lantern is "a film of astonishing beauty and terror" (Los Angeles Times) that will captivate you from start to finish. In 1920s China, women had few options. So following the death of her father, Songlian (Gong Li, Memoirs Of A Geisha), a beautiful nineteen-year old college student agrees to marry a wealthy nobleman. She is to be wife number four at his estate, where daily life revolves around an ancient family custom: the master raises a red lantern outside the house of the wide with whom he desires to spend the night. On the surface, there is harmony between the wives, but trapped inside their gilded cages, with nothing to do but compete for their husband's favor, the four "sisters" are drawn into a web of petty rivalries that soon escalate into treachery... and tragedy.