He Saifei

In Raise the Red Lantern (1991), He Saifei makes Meishan's resentment personal, even when the household seems to have reduced every disagreement to a matter of rules. She plays the third wife among four women competing for favour, a part that could easily become a convenient source of trouble for the central character. Instead, her grievances are worth following in their own right. Alongside Gong Li and Cao Cuifen, she gives Zhang Yimou's drama people we can understand without approving of everything they do.

Her physical grace and considered vocal delivery come from Yue opera, where she trained in female roles. She gained national attention through the opera film Five Daughters Offering Felicitations (1984), before Raise the Red Lantern introduced her to international audiences. That background helps explain the recurring parts as opera artists and concubines, and the ease with which her work fits a period setting. Elegance alone would do little for Meishan; the rivalry needs the force He gives it.

We found Raise the Red Lantern deeply upsetting because He and her fellow performers make the women's resentment so understandable. The household rituals keep forcing them into competition, and the performances give us reasons to care about each grievance. Zhang occasionally presses the repetition harder than necessary, until a dispute can seem less important than the rules governing it. The women have already made the cost clear, and we do not always need the film to make the point again.

Supporting roles followed in Chen Kaige's Temptress Moon (1996), again alongside Gong Li, and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (2007). In Off the Stage (2022), she takes the lead as Ms Qi, a former Yueju star, putting her experience of performance at the centre of the film. It is a welcome opportunity for an actress whose screen work has so often been supporting somebody else's story. Begin with Raise the Red Lantern, but give the rival wives as much attention as the household rituals.