Red Sorghum

Red Sorghum

1987
Drama, War
1h 31m
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 (imdb)
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Red Sorghum

1987
Drama, War
1h 31m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 60.01% from 332 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(332)
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Rated 14 Aug 2007
67
30th
Visually striking. I like the first part of the film, about the winery and all. Then it takes this weird turn and becomes a totally different movie. Not a bad movie, mind you, but different. It's pretty good, I guess. I'm feeling indecisive about it.
Rated 12 Nov 2010
85
86th
Mind-blowing cinematography and a very touching story about love, tradition and war.
Rated 27 May 2012
77
51st
A beautifully composed and shot film, and the story is compelling enough, but the whole thing feels a little off. I think the big problem is that there's no real compelling drama or characterization. Everyone is more or less going through the paces of a story that badly wants to be allegory but has nothing of substance to say. Still, it's mildly entertaining and beautiful to look at and paced rather well.
Rated 10 Feb 2010
90
91st
Superior to the novel - a wonderful film that desperately needs a proper DVD release.
Rated 04 Nov 2010
62
15th
First half of the film was very bland. None of characters interested me and I thought it was pretty boring. Enter the japs and some horrific scenes with blood and evilness which really heightened my experience. There should have been more of that and less wine pissing. So well, it's a very uneven film but also extremely beautiful. Worth a watch.
Rated 04 Jan 2013
65
71st
The simplicity of the story is appealing, but it also becomes the only real (and minor) weakness of the film, as I think Zhang elides over a bit too much of the characters' lives. The arrival of war and dramatic change in tone of the film is jarring, as I suppose it should be, but here too the brevity of this final chapter seemed a bit unsatisfying. But Gong Li is never not good.
Rated 05 Jul 2016
63
54th
Yimou's breakthrough demonstrates his strong command of visuals, which was clear from the outset, but his story telling skills were much less developed. Red Sorghum plays like an epic historical family drama that has been squashed into a much smaller film due to budgetary constraints. The intrusion of war on the semi-idyllic community in the third act doesn't have the impact it should have because it's over too quickly, which reduces our emotional involvement. It needed to be longer.
Rated 28 Sep 2018
53
27th
Really good cinematography but the rest is just meh. Nothing noteworthy.
Rated 02 Mar 2008
61
37th
# 778
Rated 19 Dec 2008
65
30th
702
Rated 15 Jan 2010
61
22nd
778
Rated 13 Nov 2010
75
79th
I could easily watch this film without sound...
Rated 16 Apr 2011
48
66th
#11#, reviews, story, dir Zhang Yimou, Gong Li!
Rated 02 Dec 2011
58
16th
#838
Rated 05 Oct 2013
87
91st
87.000
Rated 26 Mar 2014
82
64th
This film was a revelation - it deserves to be more well known, and I enjoy it more than Zhang's later work.
Rated 31 Oct 2014
73
79th
Strong stuff. I am seeing complaints about lack of character depth and a jarring last act. Well, it's certainly simple in most respects, and I'm not saying it couldn't have benefited from greater depth, but I think it already works the way it is. And there are even harsher changes in tone in some of Wen Jiang's films as a director.
Rated 07 Sep 2016
75
58th
I liked the starkness and simplicity of this movie, and the themes that were carried alongside each other throughout - alcohol, joy and sadness, conflict and uncertainty, ghosts in the wild sorghum. The end seemed to really take the feel of the movie another direction, and somehow feel additive, even though the film-making was still great. I loved how jovial the workplace could get, having had their burden released, with singing of songs. Loved both Gong Li and her love interest's acting.
Rated 16 Feb 2019
68
78th
Right from his first film Zhang displays craftsmanship you would expect from director late into his career. Much more story driven than To Live I watched yesterday, but from the start of his career he seemed to take great care to make his films authentic, to transport you to different time and place using detailed sets, displaying impressively displayed folk arts and crafts. Again, cinematography is beautiful; definitely watchable without the sound on.
Rated 12 Sep 2019
85
62nd
Beautiful filming, especially the color palettee being used. Could be watched without words, the dialogue is limited anyways. It's lack of character development and rushed feeling limit it however. The book had a lot more time (and material) to cover. The matriarch does a wonderful job, but the grandfather is lacking. Ending rushed, book provided much more support for it.
Rated 04 Oct 2019
55
24th
So many unlikeable characters. I appreciate the aesthetic effort, but this was in no way a pleasant experience.
Rated 06 Aug 2021
95
96th
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Rated 15 Aug 2022
75
71st
What a red movie! At first, it's red with the wedding gown, then red with the liquor, then red with blood. There's a strong presence of colors throughout and I've always found those fields of tall plants blowing in the wind haunting and creepy. It's a very aesthetically striking movie and as far as the story goes, I was entertained and kept invested throughout the movie. The way that Gong Li can act with her eyes and her expression alone is haunting!
Rated 20 Sep 2022
76
62nd
Incredibly beautiful and colorful (definitely see it in HD), very well made with some very effective moments. Li is very good, though I found what she saw in the grandfather character a bit difficult to put my finger on. He acts like a jerk for the whole movie. I didn't like it nearly as much as Raise the Red Lanterns, but it has a similar visual beauty. The third act seems very sudden and fairly out of place--maybe if it had been longer it would have fit more. Good stuff.

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