Raise red lantern Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, Ju Dou) is the most exciting thing to happen to film melodrama since German emigre Douglas Sirk came to Hollywood and reinvigorated the form in the 1950s. Raise the Red Lantern is like some exotic hothouse specimen that's beautiful to the eye yet caustic to the touch. What Zhang undertakes here is nothing less than a biting examination of sexual politics, mandarin-style. But it's more than that. It's an …

…she gives Songlian a streak of stubborn, regal pride. But, psychologically, the character always remains at a distance, and, as a result, the movie seems oddly vacant at its center. As gorgeous as it is, "Raise the Red Lantern" never achieves any momentum or weight. Even when Songlian discovers a secret tower used to keep the wives in line, the story never amounts to much more than a rather tepid Chinese rendition of "The Women."