Red Sorghum

1988

1h 31m

Drama

List

85%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

83%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Young Jiu'er (Gong Li) is sent by her parents to marry an old leper who owns a distillery. As she is being carried over the sorghum fields, bandits attack and she is rescued by a laborer (Wen Jiang), with whom she has a son -- the narrator. After the old leper dies, Jiu'er takes control of the distillery and invites the workers into a collective arrangement. But as the Sino-Japanese War peaks, barbarous Japanese troops storm onto the property determined to destroy the sorghum fields.

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David Parkinson

Empire Magazine

As ever with Zhang, the supposedly heroic action is rife with visual and thematic subversion.

Rated: 4/5

Jan 16, 2009

Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Satisfies both as straight folk tale and as a subversive tribute to the vitality and endurance of Chinese peasant culture.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Vincent Canby

New York Times

Its supposedly innovative epic style looks decidedly old-fashioned here.

Aug 30, 2004

Full Review

Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

Both an excellent, award-winning drama and a landmark in Chinese film history.

Rated: 9/10

Nov 3, 2021

Full Review

Ángel Fernández-Santos

El Pais (Spain)

A beautiful, energetic, and at the same time subtle movie. [Full Review in Spanish]

Mar 27, 2020

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 4/5

Dec 18, 2004

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s r

1001 movies to see before you die. A somewhat communist tribute to old China and a sorghum wine community that was thriving, then disrupted by the Japanese occupation. It told the love story that was ruined by the Japanese. It was on Youtube.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

William L

Wine as drink, wine as explosive. Zhang Yimou's cinematic debut is a testament to transformation, spontaneity, and the insecure nature of life, beginning as a simplistic and traditional small-scale (but long-duration) social drama where characters contend mostly with the trappings of society, where the world itself seems to end at the boundaries of a sorghum field; like the production of wine, the story progression is sluggish and incremental. Until, with no warning, the world rushes in at the arrival of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the carefully cultivated personalities that we have been introduced to through subtle character interactions and that have aged with time are suddenly thrust into a radical upheaval. The majority of the film is preoccupied with its folk tale origin (recounted by a subsequent generation), and its languid nature clashes with the grim and scarcely foreshadowed conclusion. As the directorial debut of well-recognized filmmaker Zhang Yimou and the acting debut of film star Gong Li, Red Sorghum heralded a shift in the international perception of Chinese cinema; even though the Chinese film did not remotely approach the international force that Hollywood still lays claim to, there was now the potential for individual projects to reach the same level of recognition as those of longstanding international titans of dramatic film, such as France and Italy. (3.5/5)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/07/21

Full Review

william d

I found the story to be a bit disjointed, as if the film makers couldn't figure out how to end a gentle tale of peasants working and surviving in the countryside, so they decided to have the Japanese show up and destroy everything. However, it was nice to see that Gong Li had developed her considerable acting chops (as well as her stunning beauty} by the time of her very first movie.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

david l

Although visually arresting and particularly memorable in the use of the color red and in the sorghum field imagery, the aptly-titled Red Sorghum is a case of style over substance as it is lacking both thematically and emotionally. Gong Li is very memorable and the first act is quite interesting, but overall the movie left a lot to be desired in script and pace, leading to a solid debut from Zhang Yimou that is clearly far from his later, best works.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Visually this was often stunning, but after a fine start the plot drifts into a series of barely connected episodes and the emotional attachment to the characters drains away. The final half hour felt as if they'd switched reels with "Come and See".

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Beautiful's and lush piece of film-making, the scenery and its colours are pure magic. A very strange but simple storytelling of unusual balance of bizarre musical opening, hopeful light-heartedness middle with a sudden Violence and tragic ending

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

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Yimou Zhang

Director

Gong Li

My Grandma

Wen Jiang

My Grandpa

Rujun Teng

Uncle Luohan

Liu Jia

Actor

Ji Chun Hua

Actor

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Synopsis

Young Jiu'er (Gong Li) is sent by her parents to marry an old leper who owns a distillery. As she is being carried over the sorghum fields, bandits attack and she is rescued by a laborer (Wen Jiang), with whom she has a son -- the narrator. After the old leper dies, Jiu'er takes control of the distillery and invites the workers into a collective arrangement. But as the Sino-Japanese War peaks, barbarous Japanese troops storm onto the property determined to destroy the sorghum fields.

Director: Yimou Zhang
Screenwriter: Mo Yan
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Chinese
Runtime: 1h 31m