Keywords: visual effects of figures in patriarchal society
First, the analysis of female characters shows the ceremony of waiting for the red lantern in front of one's house before dusk. Women should beat their legs and light up before going to bed, and then they can order food after going to bed. Women with children can light the ever-burning lamp in the yard, and women who are rejected have to turn off the lights. Many "ancestral rules" represent the "ethics" of feudal families, laying the foundation for the following ladies to compete for the favor of their masters.
The first wife-the heart is dead
The first wife is undoubtedly the person who spent the longest time with Master Chen. She experienced the longing for love, the disillusionment of love dreams, and finally the process of dying. So, when Song Lian, the heroine, became the fourth aunt of the host and was sent into the house, she was already commonplace, but she could not resist. The beads in her hand were scattered on the ground, and she experienced many cynicism when concubines entered the room. She took her son Fei Pu, a gentleman, and sat firmly in a big room at home. When Song Lian laughed at her, "it should be as old as a hundred years old." Instead of blaming the offenders below, the master added fuel to the fire. They laughed at their first wife together in the room. The host thinks that she stays in the room all day and stays out of the world just to escape from reality. If you are insincere, it is useless to fast and recite Buddha.
The second wife-hiding the knife in a smile
A second wife will undoubtedly win the hearts of her family. She has nothing, no son to rely on and no love from her husband. She has reached a certain age and can't compare with other new aunts. When Song Lian didn't enter the yamen, her main competitor was her third aunt, Mei Shan, who used to be an actress and was young and beautiful. Fortunately, she has a bad temper, so she tries her best to play the role of a kind and virtuous person and please him. It's the only way. As soon as Song Lian came to the door, he began to win people's hearts, pretending to be greeted with smiles, but secretly instigated the maid Yaner to make a trip for Song Lian. This kind of real little talent is the most terrible.
Third mistress-true temperament
Meishan is the most authentic woman in the film. Although she is the master's concubine, unlike other women, she is only jealous. She has a good voice and sings a good program, which is her bargaining chip, so he dares to say to his host, "If you don't come to my room for more than X days, I'll go out and find a partner." The master loves and fears her, but she is an absolute authority at home. In the face of Meishan's "keeping his word", he chose to kill her without insulting her family's reputation.
Fourth mistress-"You can't live without madness"
Song Lian is the central figure in this play. She used to be a college student. Her family began to decline because of her father's death. She chose to get married before working to earn money. She said to her stepmother, "If you remember my father's friendship, buy me a good family." This is the first step of her tragedy. Even though she has received a new education, she still doesn't want to believe that work has changed her fate. She would rather choose to be a concubine and live a good life. After entering the fire pit, she was assimilated, and how other concubines competed for favor, she also assimilated, because she realized that as long as she provided absolute obedience, she could enjoy the treatment of playing lanterns and pounding her back, and she was addicted to this appearance of wealth. There are countless maids at home, and some of them have been violated by their owners. Described in the book, when the master went to Song Lian's room, he touched a few handfuls on Yan Er's breast. The female groups in the government are all tools to vent their sexual desire under the influence of men. They only need to provide sexual services and absolute obedience to survive in the government. By watching the film, we can easily find that the core figure of this film is the female group. The film depicts a group of jealous women. Some of them show dissatisfaction, some hide a knife in their smile, some are true, some are dead, some are slowly going to ruin, and some have just stepped into a fire pit. They have different personalities, but they are the same. They live like cats and dogs but not like people.
Second, music and sound effects.
The opening is to welcome the bride's music, and the audience is brought into the rhythm of the film with dense drums. Among them, as one of the rules of this film, the sound of "hammer foot" is also regarded as the soundtrack of the film. The hammered footsteps echoed inside and outside Chen's house. On the one hand, it's for ladies-in-waiting who are not lit up by their owners, expressing an unbearable desire to stay in this yard for a long time, and on the other hand, it's for the audience, listening to the sound of hammering feet, observing the inner activities and thoughts of each wife, and bringing the audience into the artistic conception created by the director. The music at the beginning of the wedding banquet, the sound of hammering feet echoing in the whole yard, and several ethereal lyrics of Meishan all indicate the inevitable tragedy.
Third, the color composition and the ultimate closed space modeling in the film.
As can be seen from the title of the play "Hanging the Red Lantern High", red is the main composition color in the film. At the same time, the darkness in the big family house, like the description of the high house at the beginning of Ba Jin's "Home", also reveals a little coolness. In terms of composition, the closed composition formed by the roof connected by large overhead cameras, the application of long shots and fixed scenes, subjective shots, the alternate use of close-range and distant views, and exaggerated contrast techniques all cast a suffocating feeling on this film. The large gray building enclosed in the film is the Chen family courtyard, with high walls standing tall, cold and gloomy, and neatly arranged small courtyards are the respective positions of wives and concubines. This deep house is like a big prison, an iron house. It is isolated from the world. People outside can't get in, and people inside can't get out. You can't see the outside world here, even if you get on the roof, you can't see any hope. Red corresponds to gray, forming a strong sense of contrast, but it is not abrupt, which better shows the red covered by gray, that is, the moral concept of male superiority over female inferiority in feudal system hangs over the fate of women.
Four. Concluding remarks
Song Lian, the heroine, is the central figure in her works. She is educated. In order to occupy a place in the Chen family, his personality was gradually distorted, which eventually led to the demise of Song Lian like other wives and even maids. The culprit is the rules of the Chen family, and the system of feudal society has harmed this group of women. In the social environment where men are superior to women, women have no way out, and only pain awaits them.
In the era of underdeveloped contraceptive methods, men's control over women is mainly established by restricting the uniqueness of their partners, which is also the legendary "chastity". If you don't keep your virginity, you can give up or even be put to death. Meishan is a bloody example. Song Lian, who accepted new ideas, entered this Plutocratic family. They were all assimilated and finally became crazy women. How do traditional women muddle through? The master said, "What do you see? You didn't see anything! You are crazy! " The master said that Song Lian was crazy, indicating that "madness" was constructed. As long as it doesn't conform to the rules, it is crazy. So we come to a conclusion: female tragedies are inevitable in a patriarchal society, and they are all driven crazy by traditional rules.