Movie

Red Sorghum

1988 · 91 min

A lush, earthy, and ultimately tragic folk tale that immerses you in a vivid rural world before turning to brutal wartime loss.

Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Genres: Drama, Romance, History
Starring: Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Teng Rujun

Overview: 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.

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Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Genres: Drama, Romance, History
Starring: Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Teng Rujun

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: earneststrength 3 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
darkstrength 2 of 3
romanticstrength 2 of 3
Pacing: measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: survival
love
family
war
violence
Places: countryside
workplace
Era: period
Audience: adult
Form: nonlinear
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language mild
Violence strong
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	4
Horror	3
Humour	3
Realism	7
Romance	6
Tension	5
Darkness	6
Complexity	5
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

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Details

Genres: drama, romance, history
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Written by: Chen Jianyu, Zhu Wei, Li Kezhi
Starring: Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Teng Rujun, Liu Ji, Qian Ming, Ji Chunhua, Zhai Chunhua, Jia Zhaoji
Music: Zhao Jiping
Cinematography: Gu Changwei
Runtime: 91 min
Country: China
Languages: Japanese, Mandarin

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Red Sorghum

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