Colours in The Banquet

Big Red: Empress (Zhang Ziyi)

Red means desire that is all over the place in The Banquet. Perhaps desire is the only reward for a woman if she lives in the Imperial Palace. The director says, The Banquet is not a story of the Empress, but a tragedy of a woman who has been killed by her greediness. This story has nothing to do with whether she will be successful to climb up as the Emperor. The key is what she has gone through, what she has gained and what she has lost. She used to love Prince, who became her step-son. She then became the Empress, a window, then a new Empress. She did not know who she loved until the Emporor suicided in front of her. It was hard to say whom she belonged to. Maybe she was not supposed to have love because of her role in the Imperial Palace.The more she wanted to gain, the more she would lose...

Black: Emporor (Ge You)

Black signifies loneliness and power. He was not born to be the Emporor, because he was not the eldest son in the family. However, he did everything he could to get what he wanted, killing the brother and getting married with the woman he liked, and becoming the Emporor in the end. He thought that he had everything. But...he did not know it was not that easy to earn his dearest woman's true love. He had to drink the poison wine in order to warm her heart and give up all his pride and glory...

White: Prince

His mask and clothes are both white. They become more distinguished when they are soaked in blood. Instead of being considered as a position, Prince should be looked as a destiny. Prince is always the hope for a dynasty and the biggest enemy of whoever wants to be an emporor. Therefore, some die for Prince, and others want Prince to die. It seems that Prince has way much more power and freedom than anyone else, except for the Emporor. However, the more freedom he has, the more dilemma he will have to face. The Prince, Wuluan, was timid to take all the responsibilities and chose to escape. He sang, he played martial arts, and he performed. He was the loneliest singer in the world. But he had no choice, because he was the Prince. He liked white, because he wanted life to be simple so that someone could understand him...

Green: Qing

Green implies Qing's persistence and Wuluan's memory. She loves without any complaint even when Prince does not know. She sings because he is lonely. She lives because she is eager to be his companion. She dies because she is not afraid of death when she has love in her heart. She is a legend or maybe she is only living in a fairy tale...