Essay Database

Third and Fifth generation Chinese films The "organization" of Red Sorghum (1987) rearranges the past, mythical and factual, to encapsulate Zhang Yimou's vision of "Chineseness." Rey Chow, in her book Primitive Passions, characterizes Zhang Yimou as appropriating a certain vision of a China past, to create a pragmatic version of China, accessible, that at the same time doesn't necessarily accurately depict China yet is pleasing to the viewer outside of that context. Zhang, through "absurd rituals …

…obvious. Rey Chow discusses this in terms of the Chinese concepts of shi and xu (Chow, Primitive Passions, p. 154). But both make their films in these ways consciously, to make the viewer think about their vision of humanity and China. I think Red Sorghum is a very aesthetically pleasing, and thought provoking film. Having seen Zhang Yimou's work on it and on Yellow Earth, I am very interested to see some of his other films.