1987 · drama · war
Red Sorghum
Directed by Zhang Yimou1h 31m1987
An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.
Our read: Red Sorghum (1987) reads as a sombre, steady, grounded drama · war entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Sombre, steady, measured drama / war, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured.
- sombre
- intense
- signature
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Availability in the UK · via JustWatch
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“You want lush rural epic poetry that turns occupation-era fury into defiant color.”
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