China Synopsis
红高粱
An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.
The 1987–1989 China Window
8 China films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. Red Sorghum sits at position #5.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Red Sorghum. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Xi'an Film Studio
The 1980s China Landscape
Catalog density by release year in the 1980s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Red Sorghum premiered. 23 total titles in this decade from China.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #268 of 946 China films indexed here (72nd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the China average of 6.7/10.
Among China Drama productions specifically: #173 of 547 (top 32%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | China |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Chinese |
| Spoken Languages | Mandarin, Japanese |
| Production Companies | Xi'an Film Studio |
| Runtime | 1h 31m |
| Release Date | October 10, 1988 |
| IMDb | tt0093206 |