Analysis of “Raise the Red Lantern” Essay

Yi-Mou Zhangs Raise the blushful Lantern, is a beautiful and brilliantly made scoot in its experience right. If, however, the team of Orson come up and Greg Toland had produced the same film it would pull away on an all different look and feel. The film would reflect Wells love for creating sensual representations of thematic metaphors and the vast take and Tolands brilliant aim of boneheaded space photography and mobile framing.Under the education of the Wells-Toland team, the film would take on subtle, yet significant variances from the very beginning. In the opening scene, with Songolian and her stepmformer(a), the focalize of the camera would still be a moderate close up of Songolian but, the previously unseen m different would now be seen in the radical background and edges of the frame. Using deep focus and choreographing her dejections the mothers credit would still remain representless, but would seem more(prenominal) tangible and the touch of exceed bet ween the mother and her stepdaughter could be re- enforced.The next major difference would be seen in the ranges involving Songolians entrance into the rear itself. In Zhangs original interpreting, Songolian enters the frame with the inscription on the back wall shown briefly. The W-T interchangeation would begin the entrance sequence with a medium close up of the inscription itself, slowly trashning from left to right, estimable slowly enough to take in the characters but fast enough to not allow the audience to rattling read the inscription. The significance of the inscription on the wall has been explained as macrocosm not in the inscription, but in the characters themselves in the oldest Chinese societies the written characters were created with arbitrary meaning assigned to them, only scholars and the aristocracy had the time and gist to learn the meanings of the thousands of different characters spendd. The characters on the wall are alluding to a nighttimespot which was dominated by male figures who arbitrarily created meaning and tradition.Zhang filmed the ride through the house in a series of thrusts usually acid from the entrance into a archway or gate, to the exit on the other side from the same. This style creates a judgement of disorientation and the layout of the house is neer really doed for the audience. The W-Tduo would probably have filmed the sundry(a) movements through the ground levels of the house in a series of persistent-takes with track shots. The shots, starting from approximately detonatortop level, would past track forward and down to discover the movement of a character through the complex, rising up and move over arches and entrance ways and hence dropping down again. preferably of placing an emphasis on the feeling of the palaces physical discontinuity created by Zhangs shots, this change would emphasize the magnitude of the structure itself, reenforcing the feeling of a well established and develo ped tradition and the insignificance of one small woman.The other type of movement followed in the story is the movement higher up roof level. The W-T team would handle this in a much different work than Zhang. The movement above roof level represents freedom of various kinds and ultimately, escape. Welles would want the camera movement in the roof scenes to reflect this, consequently, the movement of a character on the roof would be filmed in a continuous take. The shot would probably be a tracking shot that changed tippytoe and distance continuously, possibly even violating the 180 microscope stage rule, in order to give the camera a bird wish well point of view. The other type of shot used above the roof level would be the fixed frame shots involving two or more characters at a distance Toland would again use this opportunity to apply his ascendency of deep focus, keeping both of the characters in focus tour paradeing the distance between the two.In the next scene Songo lian, enters her house for the maiden time. Zhang used a long shot to show her standing in the middle of the room, surveying her new accommodations. The W-T team would have used a longer shot, possibly even an extremely long shot in this instance. As the lanterns are being lit, the of import chandelier above the experience would probably be shot from a birds center field perspective as it was being lowered and then a scandalise shot as it was being raised. The change in distance would cave in Songolian seem even smaller in the huge room, a fiddling woman surrounded buy countless, huge red lanterns signifying the family traditions.When the husband is last introduced into the film, the W-T team would dash the husband as a faceless character, just as Zhang had done. The technical difference, however would be that W-T, would use a shot/reverse-shot sequence with the husband in order to better display the distance between himself and Songolian. This would be a perfect opportunity for Tolands mastery of the use of deep space. Shooting close to the husband from below bring up level toward Songolian would create a better physical metaphor for the delirious distance between the two.Frequently in the film there are shots of the inner court-areas of the houses of various wives, shown with the red lanterns burning against the darkness of the night. Zhang, in his version, shoots these from a high burthen and the camera is fixed in the inner courtyard. W-T would shoot this as a tracking shot, mournful from a high angle shot of at least one of the dark inner courts and then pulling back to pan across the darkened compound, then moving to another high angle shot of the court with the lit lanterns. thither are frequently points in the story where the husband leaves the house during the night to go to another house. The W-T team would shoot this from a high angle shot of the lit inner-court as the lanterns are extinguished and then use a tracking shot to crawl along the compound to the house where the lanterns being lit, then the camera would pan back in the education it had come to reveal the dark compound.The dining room is a central point in Zhangs version of the film and would also be pivotal in the W-T version. Songolian is shown the dining room when she is given her tour of the house. The W-T version of this scene would closely resemble the Zhang version with one key difference. The W-T camera would raise to the faces of the portraits of the ancestors, move to a close up and then pan around the room giving us a shot model of Songolians perspective. In the first dining scene the establishing shot would be the same shot that was originally used. The long shot that was used to establish the parameters of the room and provide a subtle suggestion of the thematic logical implication of the scene would take on new meaning under the direction of the Wells-Toland team. The Spartan room, surrounded on three sides by portraits of past patriarchs of the family was unmistakable in the establishing shot, but the presence of the family men is only alluded towith Tolands use of deep focus the portraits of the patriarchs could be brought into clear perspective, bringing the idea of the cast of the ancestors more securely into the scene.As the scene progresses Zhangs original sequence of shot, reverse-shot wold still be used, and the cameras height would remain above the table level the important difference between the Zhangs shots and the W-T shots would be the cameras angle. W-T would lower the camera slightly and drastically development the angle in order to include the faces of the long deceased patriarchs in the same frames with the wives in the close-ups and medium close-ups. This change, in conjunction with deep focus, would alter the thematic implications of these scenes by introducing the faces of these nameless men directly into the world of the wives, they would be literally, looking over their shoulders.The most sig nificant change in the film would come during the scene when Meishan is hung. Wells would want to convey Songolians feeling of fear and confusion and Toland would accomplish this by using a long take beginning when Songolian first sees the lanterns coming through the archway. The camera would then shift to a P.O.V. shot representing Songolian following the men up to the rooftop. stint the rooftop level the camera would rush forward to reveal a medium long shot of the men taking Meishan into the room, then turn on its axis and rush back toward Songolian to display the revelation on her face and her fear. Finally, the camera would circle behind Songolian in a very long reverse shot and Tolands masterful deep focus would display the men leaving the room upon completion of the act.