Ok. Considering that I have been scouring this for a long time, I have got to be surprised to find this in the library. After reading the synopsis, it clear to me that I HAVE to watch it.

Basically its about the rivalries among concubines to whom the master chooses to sleep with everyday. Oh yah, have to mention that Gong Li is one of them. It is proven that reading that may result in varying exilaration.

I squatted to lower racks and begun running my fingers throught the dvd spines, straining my focus to register the different titles. When I saw it, I dragged it out immediately and smiled by myself for being so lucky. Next, I secretly peered over shoulders for any ah peks and aunties that could be vying the same interest and pulling of the “I need it more then you” stunt. I think I was being paranoid. But most of all, I think I am lucky. No ones is around me.

This film is crafted in a close door manner which intimacy is none existant to the viewer but generally understood. Chief ploy relying on the subtle yet discriminating politics between the 3 concubines and the head wife. The idea is whomever the master choses the sleep with the night before, she will get to have some odd privileges, also implicitly gaining a upperhand in the running for the household. So every evening, the four ladies would stand outside their quarters within view of each other and then some lantern fella would walk down their aisle and place a big red lantern, infront of one of them

As I think you know, would indicate the master desire to sleep with for the night. Those same guys would then proceed to light up alot of big red lanterns inside the compound of the “chosen one”. The lighting of the lanterns is depicted in painstaking extent, apparently a tradition that has been passed down for generations. Foully interesting right?

I don’t wish to give up too much of the details, but I have to admit the artful directing and rich characters in the film brought about more then just the survial of the shrewest equation. But also the equality and purpose of the Chinese women in the past. It relates on how education and social exposure can bring about different ideologies against traditional conventions.

In the past, if you are one rich man in China having more then one wife, it is really important to make sure the babies they bear is yours