Sweeping historical epics are not what regular foreign-filmgoers have come to expect from China. Quiet little intimate stories, yes. But a raucous, wild and woolly picture that is, much of the way, very much like a John Ford western? No.
Nevertheless, here comes "Red Sorghum," the Golden Bear winner at last year's Berlin Film Festival, and both visually and emotionally it packs a wallop.
Director Zhang Yimou has a sure command of his CinemaScope cameras as he tells his intimate story with occasional epic proportions. It begins with an unseen narrator explaining that the story we're about to see is possibly true or possibly a fable, and is about his grandparents. Then we see the protagonist, a young girl named "Nine" — so-called because she was born on the ninth day of the ninth month — being carried in a sedan to her pre-arranged marriage to a wealthy elderly leper.
Right away we get a hint of the rowdy sense of humor that will permeate much of the film as the carriers become insensitive clowns, jolting the chair about while singing a rude song about how disgusting her her husband-to-be is.
When they finally bring Nine to tears, they are sorry for what they've done and hurriedly take her to the bridegroom's winery. Along the way they are attacked by a bandit, but one of the carriers, who obviously has eyes for Nine, saves the day.
Two days after her marriage is consummated, Nine is allowed to visit her parents. On the way home she is kidnapped by the carrier who saved her a few days before, and in a tense, sensual scene he makes a bed for them in the sorghum fields as the hot wind blows the huge grassy stems around them. Later, when she gets home, the worm turns, so to speak, as innocent young Nine lashes out at her father for "selling" her and vows never to return to her parents' home again.
These scenes are filled with unexpected passion and are among the film's most stirring as they set the stage for what is to come.
As the story progresses Nine is kidnapped by a bandit, inherits the wine business and makes a go of it, is insulted by and eventually marries the carrier and then, nine years later, the sorghum fields are flattened by the brutal Japanese as they build a highway.
Once the Japanese enter the picture, "Red Sorghum" switches from its lighter tone to harshly realistic, a rather jarring element, with scenes of violence that are rough, but mostly off-camera.
Zhang Yimou is able to elicit audience reaction quite strongly without resorting to bloodbags or special effects, and his actors' performances are uniformly striking, in particular 22-year-old acting student Gong Li, whose gradual maturity in this film is most compelling to watch.
"Red Sorghum" is unrated, but would probably get an R for violence.