Women Beware women: Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern

In this Film as Text article, McFarlane discusses Zhang Yimou's focus on female characters in one of his classic cinematic texts: 'Whenever sexual or other violent action is at issue, the camera refuses to come closer, as if to say that this is not the film's chief business. The chief business lies in what the characters, especially the protagonist Songlian will make of these events.' McFarlane discusses the main protagonist, the genre (More than a melodrama) and the style of this film.