MOVIE REVIEW : Exquisite ‘Red Firecracker’: Sparks Amid Old China

He Ping’s exquisite “Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker” takes us to northern China at the turn of the century, where the Cai family rules over territory so vast that a peasant remarks that one could walk through it three days and three nights and still not cross it from border to border.

The source of the family fortune may seem surprising: the humble firecracker, which we learn is used not only for celebrations but also for breaking up iced-over rivers and, most important of all, as medicine formulated from its ingredients. Alas, it has come to pass that there is no longer a Cai male heir, which means that at 19 the beautiful Chun Zhi (Ning Jing) has assumed severe male attire, sworn never to marry and is always addressed as master.

Chun Zhi’s lot is much like that of the elderly empress, presiding over the waning Qing Dynasty in Beijing’s Forbidden City. Her whims may be of iron, but she is imprisoned in her ancient palace along the Yellow River by her gender.

Chun Zhi rules firmly but wisely, displaying the imperiousness expected of her, but tradition places her under the firm guidance of an elderly family retainer, Mr. Zhao (Gai Yang). She may make the final decisions--and her word is law--but the actual administration of her business and her estate is carried out by her major domo Mr. Mann (Zhao Xiaorui), obsequious to her but brutal to those below him.

Chun Zhi has already resigned herself to her lonely fate, when she hires, sight unseen, an itinerant painter to decorate all 72 of her palace’s doors. Mutual attraction sparks instantly between this stunning young woman and the strapping, clean-cut young artist, Nie Bao (Wu Gang) that inevitably will not be denied. What’s more, he’s a firebrand--proud, outspoken, headstrong.

“Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker,” adapted by Da Ying from a novel by Feng Jicai, brings to mind Zhang Yimuo’s “Raise the Red Lantern” in its depiction of the closed world of the palace with its intrigues and power plays, and also Huang Jianxin’s “The Wooden Man’s Bride,” which by coincidence is screening at the Nuart through Saturday and which depicts a young woman forced to marry a carved effigy of her dead betrothed.

The celibacy required of Chun Zhi is actually even more absurd, for how is she to carry on the dynasty that supports so many people if she is not allowed to marry and have children? Chun Zhi’s people are such hidebound traditionalists that none of them seem to be able to perceive this absurdity, thus undermining the very economic security they crave so dearly.

This film is long and leisurely yet seems never draggy nor tedious because He Ping has done such a splendid job of transporting us to an exotic time and place and of eliciting flawless portrayals from his cast. The most complex and intriguing figure is actually Mr. Mann; he’s not sympathetic, yet Zhao Xiaorui shows us an obedient man struggling to do what is expected of him in unprecedented circumstances.

Gorgeous looking--as are most Chinese films--”Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker” benefits crucially from a plaintive, mood-setting score by Zhao Jiping, who creates the music for many of China’s major contemporary films.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: There’s some strong language and considerable brutality, although it is appropriate to the story’s historical context.

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‘Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker’ Ning Jing: Chun Zhi (The “Master”) Wu Gang: Nie Bao (The Painter) Zhao Xiaorui: Mr. Mann Gai Yang: Mr. Zhao An October Films presentation. Director He Ping. Producers Chen Chunkeung, Yung Naiming. Screenplay by Da Ying; from a novel by Feng Jicai. Cinematographer Yang Lun. Editor Yuan Hong. Music Zhao Jiping. Art director Qian Yunxiu. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Westside Pavilion, 10800 Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 475-0202, and the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869.