Raise the Red Lantern is a popular film directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and he is known for his adaptation of the late 20th century novel written by Su Tong. Both the film and the novel revolve around political controversy in 1920s China. Although the summary plots of the two versions of Raise the Red Lantern differ in terms of context, Zhang Yimou and Su Tong served their purpose of capturing brought their audiences' attention to the dark side of China's traditional customs and history in the 1920s in ways previously thought unimaginable. A very different approach Yimou took with Raise the Red Lantern was how he changed the names of the characters in Su Tong's novel. The main characters are the four mistresses, the fourth mistress's maid, and Chen Zuoqian. The names of the four mistresses are Joy, Cloud, Coral and Lotus. In the film, the four mistresses have traditional Chinese names Yuru, Zhuoyun, Meishan, and Songlian, but their names can easily be distinguished because they are also identified as mistresses. Joy, the first teacher is called Yuru; Cloud, the second mistress is known as Zhuoyun; Coral, the third mistress is known as Meishan; and Lotus, the fourth mistress is known as Songlian. As for other roles in Raise the Red Lantern, Chen Zuoqian is simply known as Master Chen in the film. What seems quite interesting about the film is that Master Chen's facial identity is never revealed. One might expect that a man who holds great prestige among all the characters in Raise the Red Lantern would have his full identity shown. The name of Songlian's personal servant in the novel is Swallow, while she is known as Yan'er in the film. In the film, Yimou gives a good visual representation of the characters in the novel, but middle of paper...... when the third mistress dies in both media, the fourth mistress goes crazy. The film and the novel end in the same way when the master marries a new concubine who will be his fifth mistress. The only difference in how the two media present the new marriage is in their use of seasons. The novel says: “In the spring of the following year, Chen Zuoqian, the old master Chen, took his fifth wife, Bamboo” (Tong 98). The film states that the marriage of the fifth concubine and the master takes place the following summer instead of spring. Although Yimou and Su Tong took different approaches to showing Chinese culture and its famous concubine customs, they both captured the attention of their audiences in a captivating yet powerful way. Whatever the differences between the film and the novel, both media opened eyes to the dark side of China's history in the 1990s. 1920..