The use of colour in the wedding scene - Red Sorghum (1988)

The wedding scene opens with fiery red. All items in Jiu Er’s wedding are red-coloured. This is because according to Chinese culture, red is the colour of love, life, auspiciousness, immortality and harmony. Therefore, on special occasions or weddings, they all use red.

Here, Zhang Yimou makes use of the colour red and its underlying symbolism. His creativity, though, is in creating a contrast between two different shades of the same red: to cover the outside of Jiu Er’s palanquin with bright red curtains but make the inside look gloomy with dark red.

This contrast highlights Jiu Er's desperation as she is forced into this loveless marriage. Outside the palanquin is bright red, cheerful and lively like every wedding, inside the palanquin is dark red with Jiu Er sobbing for her fate.

    Zhang Yimou uses yellow as the main colour for the scene that views from afar.  The yellow of the vast land draw emphasis to the bright red palanquin, but as it was small, it make the palanquin look lonely, and lost - somehow related to the small, pitiful Jiu Er.

💡 Link to my media product

A look at the use of colour in my media product:

     At the beginning of my media product, when we first saw the protagonist, I want to aim for a desaturated, blueish colour palette. This is to immerse audiences into the scene  - for them to take the view from his perspective. He feels lost and lonely, it makes the world around him look gloomy. Blue also symbolise sadness and the use of it overall enhances the melancholy mood of the film.
    In the scene of two characters having a conversation, a dull, faded colour palette would be used. The paleness of colours intensifies the characters' sense of desperation. It makes them look lifeless. The choice of such colours helps heighten the feelings inside the characters.