ID 1360763150 Zhang Yimou 4-Movie Collection (Blu-ray) (4-Disc) (Respect Version) (First Press Limited Edition) (Korea Version)
This Zhang Yimou Blu-ray boxset includes the classic films Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju and To Live, all starring Gong Li, as well as eight postcards. Red Sorghum (1987) Zhang Yimou brings his inimitable touch to Red Sorghum, a sumptuous drama set during 1930s China, just prior to the Japanese occupation. Jiu'er (Gong Li) is a young bride arranged to marry the leprous owner of a sorghum winery. When her husband dies, Jiu'er takes over the winery, along with her lover (Jiang Wen), a burly rogue with a natural, rough charisma. Their rural lives are filled with struggle and even joy, but the Japanese invasion brings tragedy and blood to their doorsteps. Told in glorious shades of red, Red Sorghum is quintessential Zhang Yimou, usingtting, cinematography and stunning imagery to create characters and mood that are both iconic and recognizable. As both an anti-war film and a portrait of pre-Communist Chinese life, Red Sorghum is a compelling, powerful achievement from a true master of cinema. Raise the Red Lantern (1991) Gong Li portrays Song Lian, the fourth wife of a rich man known only as the Master (Ma Jing Wu). Forced to quit school due to her father's death, Song Lian chooses to marry a wealthy landowner against her stepmother's warnings. Quickly, her universe is reduced to the confines of a sheltered, dismal home, where her contact with others is limited only to her husband, his family, and her servants. Traditionally, the Master lights lanterns outside the compound of the wife he wishes to spend the night with, and it seems natural that he'd spend his time with his new bride. However, during their wedding night, the Master is forced to rush away to console his third wife. From that moment onward, a wicked game of treachery and manipulation ensues among the wives as each vies for the master's attentions, no matter the cost. Tinged with political subtext, the poignant, beautifully shot Raise the Red Lantern provides a brutal glimpse into the social realities of China in the early twentieth century. The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) Farmer Qinglai (Liu Peiqi) quarrels with the village chief (Lei Kesheng) over the building of a storage house for his crops in the field, and the village chief kicks him. Qinglai gives up and wants the matter to pass, but his pregnant wife Qiuju (Gong Li) does not. She argues the case first to the county government, then the provincial government. Qiuju persists for but one reason: she wants justice to be done. Like many of Zhang Yimou's early works, The Story of Qiu Ju focuses on ordinary Chinese peasants in repressive conditions. Besides leveraging sharp criticism against bureaucracy and abuse of power, the film also contrasts the social and economic differences between peasants and city dwellers, highlighting problems in China's contemporary sociopolitical development. The Story of Qiu