For many years from our history, women's rights have always been a contraversial topic. History has shown the world to be primarily a male-dominated society, where a woman's role is often dictated by a man. In the movies Raise the Red Lantern and Fargo, both movies dictate a society where the dominant sex is male. In Raise the Red Lantern , the women are concubines who (seemingly) have no say in what the master wants or does not want. In Fargo, the opposite seems true, as Frances McDormand plays the only woman in the movie who has intelligence: Officer Margie Gundersson. Yimou's film showcases a different kind of intelligence: a shrewd, cunning intelligence that is utilized in order to retain power over the master.

Raise the Red Lantern gives western society a everyday look at the fourth wife of a rich landowner, Songlian (Gong Li). Forced to marry against her will by her sickly mother, Songlian initially despises her new surroundings: a small, enclosed manor filled with traditional rules and ritual with which she is unfamiliar with. Although she has been to University, education means nothing here; her entire

In both films, the notion of a patriarchal society is challenged. In Raise The Red Lantern, Songlian learns to play a devious, calculating game of deciet and lies in order to control the "master" of the house, while in Fargo,

equally adept at being sympatheic to the pressures felt by her painter husband Norm (John CarrollLynch) or watching nature shows on late-night tv. In their marriage, traditional roles are reversed: Norm stays home and cooks and is the more artistic type of the two (he paints pictures that he hopes will make it onto a stamp), while Margie goes out into a dangerous world of cops-and-robbers. This little switch-up illustrates the changing times; a woman police

various fast-food places seem almost distracting to her main duty: a detective on the case of two killers. The Coen Brother's manage to combine the typicality of an everyday suburbanite wife with a no-nonsense Columbo-style

officer would not even have been considered 40 years ago. Furthermore, it portrays women as being just as (if not more) capable then men at a previously "male" occupation. The choice of a female, pregnant lead protagonist against two armed, "funny-looking" guys and a seedy car salesman seems unfair at first; however, she proves to be more than a match for these three, single-handedly figuring out the turn of events and bringing both Lundegaard and the two killers to justice.

In almost all the scenes in this movie involving the master, Yimou intentionally chooses not to reveal the Master's face; he remains a symbolic figurehead of the power that men control. For this reason, almost all the scenes in this movie consists of imagery of women. Intentionally masking the master's face makes the viewer see him as having less importance than the wives, as they are the main focus of the film. The master's role consists of upholding tradition and enforcing strict rules, which the women are forced to live by. Although they are "wives" in name, their role as wives are different then those often perceived in western societ

Some common words found in the essay are:
Li Forced, Red Lantern, Slowly Songlian, John CarrollLynch, Margie Gunderson, Coen Brother's, Lantern Fargo, Coen Brothers, Lantern Songlian, Gundersson Yimou's, red lantern, raise red, raise red lantern, patriarchal society, police officer, role police officer, power master, margie gunderson, scenes movie, songlian learns, exactly happened, red lantern fargo, lantern fargo,
Approximate Word count = 1377
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)