SUMMARY: The directorial debut of Zhang Yimou, Red Sorghum is based on the novel of the same name by 2012 Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan. A beautiful young woman from a poor family is married to the elderly—and leprous— owner of a winery. When he is killed, she tries to run the winery herself, but violent bandits and the Japanese occupation of China in the run-up to the Second World War undermine her efforts.

SCENE-BY-SCENE (Contains Spoilers): The story is told as a recollection or flashback by the grandson of the protagonists, whom we encounter only as a voice. The film begins with a bride (Gong Li) being transported in a covered sedan and wearing a veil to meet her new husband, Big Head Li; Li is much older, a leper, and the owner of a winery; according to the grandson's narration, Li received his bride's hand in exchange for a mule. All of the men carrying the sedan work for Li, we are told, except one (Wen Jiang)— whom the narrator says "would become my grandpa."

On the way, the group is waylaid by in infamous bandit called Sanpao as they pass through a field of sorghum (which is tall enough to approach them unseen). The bandit, wearing a mask, opens the sedan curtain and touches the bride's foot; she smiles, and he orders her to get out and go into the sorghum; when he turns his back on the group, they attack him from behind and kill him. It is then discovered that he was not Sanpao, and his gun was fake. Because she has been forced to get out of the sedan, the hired carrier ("Grandpa") is able to see the bride, and is obviously struck by her beauty.

The party arrives at the winery, which is very isolated in a barren landscape The bride is escorted in, still wearing her veil; she waits with trepidation for new husband to show up, and when he does she attacks Li with scissors she has taken from home, and he is heard screaming in the night by the workers at the winery.

By custom, the bride (whom we only ever know as "Nine") travels to her family's home three days after the wedding; on the way there, she is again attacked in the sorghum field (where she has gone to urinate) by a masked man, who carries her far from the path. After a chase, her attacker is revealed to be the hired carrier (Grandpa). He flattens out an area of the sorghum field, carries her to it, and has sex with her (though this happens off screen; all we see here is waving sorghum— which we will be one of the central visual motifs— over a soundtrack of loud, brassy music). We see her lay down, and it is not entirely clear if she is willing participant or not. Afterward, we can hear grandpa singing to her from the sorghum as she rides toward her family's home.

As the bride rides back to Li's winery, we learn from the voiceover that Big Head Li has been killed; his killer is never discovered, but the narrator suspects Grandpa. At the winery, the workers are gossiping about the killing, as well as about the new bride and her relationship with the hired bearer. She arrives and spends the night on the ground outside Li's house, afraid to go in because of his leprosy. One of the workers, named Luohan, comes along and spits sorghum wine around the grounds, including where she has been sleeping; he tells her this will disinfect and protect her from the disease.

With Li dead, all of the workers are planning to leave the winery, but the bride gives a speech asking them to stay and continue working for her. They are convinced, and she tells them not to call her "mistress" but to regard them as her equals, since she is from a poor family too. (This is when she reveals that everyone calls her "Nine" because she is the ninth child, born on the ninth day of the ninth month.) Nine tells the workers to take three days off and clean the whole house, burning everything touched by Li and covering everything in sorghum wine and lime.

Grandpa arrives, very drunk, and insists that he is going to sleep in the house with Nine, whom he says is "my wife." She tries to have the workers throw him out, but he reveals that they have slept together; she beats him with a broom, and they carry him out and dump him in a wine barrel.

The bandit Sanpao (the real one) and his gang arrive; she tells the bandit that she slept with Li, so that he will not rape her. Instead, Sanpao takes her hostage for ransom. She returns, appearing in terrible condition; just at this time, grandpa emerges from the wine vat, where he has remained for three days.

Feeling guilty about what has happened while he was intoxicated, Grandpa runs off to a restaurant or pub; he orders a drink and food, but is told that he cannot have steak, which is reserved for Sanpao. He then gets in a fight over his bill, just as Sanpao and his gang show up. Grandpa convinces them he was drunk, and they make him kowtow to Sanpao to apologize. Grandpa then attacks Sanpao over the latter's kidnap of Nine, believing that Sanpao has raped her; Sanpao insists that he would "not touch a leper's woman." Sanpao allows him to leave, but it is a close thing.

Back at the winery, Nine is recovering slowly; Luohan asks her to come out to see the fires being lit for the wine making and shows her around the wine-making process. Nine gets her hands dirty with the workers, working the bellows the feeds the fires. The Workers make an offering of new wine to the gods, complete with very enthusiastic singing about the quality and benefits of the wine; then each worker smashes his wine bowl. Nine tries the new wine, surprising and pleasing the workers when she drinks a whole bowl.

Grandpa shows up again as the workers and Nine are celebrating. Luohan offers him some of the new wine; rather than drink from the bowl, Grandpa takes the casks of wine and urinates in them, then begins emptying the leftover grain out of the apparatus in a very haphazard way. After brushing the grain off of Nine's clothes, Grandpa carries her off into the house.

Later than night, Luohan tastes the wine grandpa peed in, and discovers that it is very good (the best they have ever made); he goes to tell Nine, and finds Grandpa still in the house with her. Calling into the house from outside, Luohan asks Nine to name the wine; she calls it 18 Mile Red, after the area where the winery is located.

Luohan leaves the winery; we then move ahead nine years, and encounter the young son of Nine and Grandpa (i.e., the father of the narrator).

It appears the Luohan is back in the area, and that Nine has met him a little way away from the winery; it is unclear at this point what he is up to, but Grandpa is clearly disturbed by his reappearance.

As we near the beginning of the Second World War, the Japanese occupy the area, forcing the people to work on building a road, which requires flattening large sections of the sorghum fields.

Among those working for the Japanese is a butcher (who worked in the restaurant that wouldn't give grandpa steak); he is asked to flay an animal, and when he shows his skill, the Japanese commanders demand that he flay a man in the same way, as a example of what will happen to any who oppose them. The man to be flayed is revealed to be Sanpao. The butcher stabs Sanpao instead, to kill him quickly, and so is shot and killed. His young assistant is then forced to flay another man, revealed to be Luohan. The narrator's voice then explains that Luohan was a communist, organizing against the Japanese.

Back at the winery, Nine opens a cask of the 18 Mile Red; she makes her son drink it, then insists that all the others do so as well, and that they attack the Japanese trucks in the morning ("if you are men...").

The men bury an improvised explosive device in the road, involving four large casks of wine; Grandpa has the child pee in one of the vats before they cover them up, for luck. The plan is to ambush the Japanese; they hide in a clearing in the Sorghum.

Back at the winery, Nine is preparing a large meal for the men. Her son returns to tell his mother that the men are hungry, so she carries the food to their hiding place. Nine arrives just as the Japanese do, and is immediately gunned down. The men attack with what are essentially big molotov cocktails made from wine jars. Everyone is killed except Grandpa and Father (the boy).

We hear someone singing the song that Grandpa sang to Nine after their encounter in the Sorghum fields. A full solar eclipse turns everything red. The credits roll over the image of waving sorghum with sun behind, now filtered dark red; the same brassy music plays.