Red Sorghum
“Red Sorghum” is a Chinese film. Not a Hong Kong production,
but a movie from mainland China. This is from a period where the technical
capabilities became absolutely comparable with what was made elsewhere, but
when there is still a political imperative that is not to be avoided. Combining
these two elements we get a movie that is cryptic, interesting and ham-fisted at
the same time.
The narrator of the story, whose voice appear from time to
time in the movie, tells us that this is a story about his grandparents.
Evidently it takes place in the period of the 1920’es to the 1940’es, which
makes it prior to communist takeover and at least in the latter part during the
Japanese occupation. His grandmother, Jiu (Gong Li) is sent off to marry a rich
winery owner who also happens to suffer from leprosy. Needless to say, Jiu is
not happy about this. One of the employees at the winery, whom the narrator
names his grandfather, but whose name in the movie I forgot (Jiang Wen), takes
an interest in Jiu. He sleeps with her in something that to me looks a bit like
rape and it is implied that he may be the one killing the winery owner. In any
case a sort of anti-hero.
Jiu takes over the winery and starts running it a bit like a
cooperative, but with her as executive lead. Sort of the Chinese communist ideal.
There is some story about Grandfather getting drunk, telling everybody he has a
claim on Jiu, then when Jiu gets kidnapped by bandits he rage on them and after
that, being angry he pees in the wine, which, curiously turns it really good (I
guess I want to avoid Chinese sorghum wine...).
When some years later the Japanese arrive, they abuse the
local population and demonstrate cruelty on a level where the winery commune
forms a resistance cell to fight off the Japanese. The narrator’s father, a little
boy loses his mother in the fight and is left with his grandfather.
The red sorghum of the title refers to the fields of red
sorghum surrounding the winery. It is tall and mysterious, hiding things and is
the source of the sorghum wine they are producing.
The general story is one that fits in very well with the communist
China narrative. The local countryside population is suffering under greedy
landowners. That the winery owner is suffering from leprosy represents the rot
of the wealthy class. His death is the revolution and the winery, a mini-China
forms a cooperative under gentle and loving, but firm leadership. The winery
employees must be educated. The Japanese invasion was both a real, formative
event for China, but also represents the external threat that China / the
winery needs to defend against and to make sacrifices for in the process. The
grandfather is the re-educated Chinese helping the young generation into a future.
This is rather ham-fisted and would in itself, perhaps, be uninteresting
to a western viewer. What makes “Red Sorghum” interesting after all is how it
presents itself. There is a production quality underlying this movie that makes
it astonishing to look at. The big sorghum fields, the sun-parched winery, the
endless skies and the construction of the setting of the movie. There are also
impressive and convincing performances all around. Especially by Gong Li, who
would develop into one of the biggest Chinese actresses, at least seen from a
western perspective, but also all-round by the staff on the winery. I sometimes
feel watching Hong Kong movies a disconnect from reality as if actors are
acting that they are acting, if that makes sense. This is absent in “Red
Sorghum” and the naturalistic acting here as far more convincing. Director
Zhang Yimou would become one of the premier directors of China and this is his
promising beginning.
Yet, all this is still very Chinese and while I understand
the overall picture, I feel that so much is lost in the cultural translation.
There are odd elements, things that are said or done and contexts that makes
little sense to me. I lived in China for half a year back in 2008, so I
recognize these things as Chinese idiosyncrasies, but they still baffle me. I
therefore cannot say that I fully understand the movie and indeed I felt lost
at times, but that is, I suppose, to be expected.
Despite that, this is a movie worth spending time on, if for
nothing else than to enjoy the spectacle and the window into a transitional
period of China, whether is be the 1920-40’ies or the 1980’es.
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