Photos: Raise The Red Lantern to Return in 4K Restoration

Zhang Yimou's RAISE THE RED LANTERN, newly restored in 4K, will return to theaters beginning November 6, 2026, to mark its 35th anniversary. The film was an Official Selection at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion and FIPRESCI Prize, and it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1993 Academy Awards. It also won Best Foreign Language Film at the 1993 BAFTA Awards and the 1993 NY Film Critics Circle Awards.

The film is considered one of the landmark works of Fifth Generation Chinese cinema.

Nineteen-year-old Songlian, a promising student whose family has been destroyed by her father's death, is forced to abandon her studies and marry into wealth, becoming the fourth and newest concubine of the aging, unseen Master Chen. Inside his walled estate, she discovers a household ruled by a merciless ritual: each night, red lanterns are lit outside the chambers of whichever wife the master chooses to visit, granting her privilege and status while the others are cast into cold irrelevance. Songlian is drawn into the orbit of her rivals, each shaped by years of fighting for the same scraps of attention. Determined at first to rise above the games, Songlian is gradually worn down by isolation and humiliation until she strikes back, trading secrets and favors to secure her place in Master Chen's hierarchy. As petty cruelty turns even more dire, Songlian is forced to confront what these desperate measures will cost her soul.

Zhang Yimou's Academy Award-nominated RAISE THE RED LANTERN is set in sumptuously captured 1920s China. Gong Li, one of international cinema's greatest stars of the era, stars as the stifled young woman forced into a repressive world of concubinage. Newly restored, the film stands as one of the defining works of Fifth Generation Chinese cinema and international film of the 1990s.

The 4K restoration of RAISE THE RED LANTERN was carried out by the Udine Far East Film Festival on the occasion of its 26th edition. The original image and sound negatives were used under the supervision of director Zhang Yimou. The vintage positive copy, presented at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival and preserved at the Venice Biennale's Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts, was used for color reference. The restoration was made in 2024 at L'Immagine Ritrovata (Hong Kong - Bologna).

RAISE THE RED LANTERN (1991)

Directed by: Zhang Yimou

Written by: Ni Zhen

Cast: Gong Li, Saifei He, Jingwu Ma, Cuifen Cao, Qi Zhao, Lin Kong, Shuyuan Jin

Produced by: Fu-Sheng Chiu

Executive Produced by: Hsiao-Hsien Hou, Wenze Zhang

Cinematography by: Lun Yang, Fei Zhao

Genre: World Cinema/Drama

RT: 125 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Sound: 2.0 stereo & 5.1 surround

Language: Mandarin with English Subtitles