The Chinese epic “Farewell My Concubine” by Chen Kaige is a cinematic masterpiece. It is a spectacle of action, history, culture, views of social and political landscapes that all intertwine in a love story that spans 52 years. It won the top prize in the 1993 Cannes International Film Festival and several other accolades in its time (Canby). The movie is vastly entertaining and enthralling. It is easy to get lost in the richness of the story – consider it a cultural achievement.
This is an epic that covers years 1925 through 1977 in Beijing (formerly Peking), China. It showcases both Modern Chinese History and a melodrama of life backstage at the Peking Opera. “Farewell My Concubine” is a favourite work in Chinese Opera about a concubine whose loyalty for her king leads to her death. As her king faces military defeat, she chooses not to abandon him instead she dances for him one last time and cut her throat with his sword.
This opera is significant in the film because it what made the two leading characters, Dieyi and Xiaolou wildly popular stars in Peking Opera. The opera makes a huge influence in the lives of both men. It affected Dieyi emotionally and sexually, who is loved by the audience for his female roles in an all-male opera company. The two principal characters met when they were young lads apprenticed at the Peking Opera’s harsh and perfectionist training school in the mid-1920s. This is an era in Chinese history when the period of warlords as rulers was coming to its end. Young Douzi (Dieyi) is a delicate boy who is assigned to the concubine role while the more masculine Shitou (Xiaolou) plays the king. Throughout their boyhood, they create a friendship like no other with Chinese historical events as backdrops. Their personal relationship survive the turmoil of World War II, the surrender of the Japanese at the end of World War II, the rule of the national government, the Chinese civil war, the communist takeover of China in 1949 and the Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976 (Ebert and Canby)
The film’s love story is a love triangle. Dieyi who is a homosexual is in love with Xiaolou who is an aggressive heterosexual who marries a beautiful prostitute (Xiaolou). Dieyi is angry and jealous and goes into a relationship with a rich opera patron. It is passionate story of two lifelong friends and the woman that comes between them.
The movie is a chockfull of memorable scenes and compelling performances by the actors, Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi and Gong Li. It is an epic of suicides, miscarriages, betrayals, drug addiction and sorrowful paradoxes: good intentions inevitably gone wrong, which could be an observation about the Communist revolution (Canby). It is astonishing that the Peking Opera survives the years of upheaval in China that even the Red Chinese accept despite its anachronism. The Cultural revolution shows young idealists who impose their new brand of political views on the older generations and characters are forced to condemn one another.
The movie examines the idiosyncrasies of the nature of the world’s least known major power. It celebrates the rights of the individual. It is a film of freedom and robust energy as it is deeply emotional. The important moments of Chinese Modern History intimately rooted in a vicious love story in a three hour masterpiece is a film you cannot forget.
Works Cited
Canby, Vincent. "Review/Film Festival; Action, History, Politics And Love Above All". The New York Times 1993. Web. 10 May 2016.
Ebert, Roger. "Farewell My Concubine Movie Review (1993) | Roger Ebert". Rogerebert.com. N.p., 1993. Web. 10 May 2016.
