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No rape in Red Sorghum


I just want to argue with the reviewer who says that the grandfather character rapes the grandmother. If you remember, it was he who bravely jumped the bandit would-be rapist, and no doubt grandmother (can't remember their names) was impressed, and grateful. They exchanged long glances, though what that meant to them each who can say, except in light of later happenings. When he's pursuing her through the field she stops when she realizes it's him. She waits while he tramples out an clearing. She never gives a sign of resistance or reluctance and even lays down. She's doomed to a life with the leper, why wouldn't she want to go with this brave, vital man?

The fact that she rebuffs him after he's drunkenly bragged about having her in front of her men well, who can blame her. It may not have been perfect romance but, if she were overall unwilling, she could have had her men get rid of him later as well, when he carries her off for keeps.

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I absolutely agree. In the original novel by Mo Yan, which happens to be very graphic in terms of the violence present in the story (especially the skinning of Luohan and the final battle scene with the Japanese), Gong Li's character succumbed to her passion for the narrator's Grandfather when she was abducted; she was not a victim of rape at the hands of Grandfather in any way. Mo Yan described that Grandmother had built up her emotions "for sixteen years" which were finally released when she was "rescued" from her arranged marriage (at least for that moment in time) by Grandfather. I find it amusing in the movie how Grandmother's father later asked her why it took her so long to "take a piss"; that part was missing from the novel.

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Mo Yan described that Grandmother had built up her emotions "for sixteen years" which were finally released when she was "rescued" from her arranged marriage (at least for that moment in time) by Grandfather.

Now that tidbit of information changes the dynamics of the film, because in the film it appears a short time passed, not 16 years! It does make the father's comment extremely amusing!


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In my opinion the masked guy was part of a plan made bij Nine (Gong Li) to escape marriage to Li. That's why she smiled when her veil was taken off. If she was 'raped' in front of the carriers, Li for sure would have nothing to do with her.
Unfortunately for Nine her 'bandit' was kind of clumsy, showing his back to the carriers who killed him.

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Her smile made me believe it was a plot, also. Otherwise she would have been scared to death. Was it a plot in the book?

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