Farewell My Concubine [DVD]

Not since Lawrence of Arabia has a film so successfully fused the personal with the epic, the grand drama of history with the melodrama of personal lives. And I use the word "melodrama" in the best sense - not as a pejorative for excessive affect, but in its older meaning, to connote an emotional story distilled to its most potent, primal form.Although it is easy (and not entirely incorrect) to assign significance to the subtext of sexual repression in China (sex and sexual abuse in many forms underlies nearly every important development in the film), it is only a small part of a much larger design. Modern China's identity crisis runs far deeper than the film's surface themes. It is a reflection of a larger human failing to find social and moral codes that work. From before the Second World War to the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, China and her people were whipsawed between various brands of hedonism and oppression, individualism with its attendant chaos and tyrannical conformity with its rigidly enforced social order. In the Dickensian story of two orphaned boys forced into servitude with a Beijing Opera troupe, it finds an uncanny metaphor in their struggle for personal identity, and against the repression of their own natures imposed by both internal and external forces.Shitou is reared from childhood to play the king in the highly stylized traditional opera from which the film takes its title. He is by nature a sensualist, drinker, womanizer, and scoundrel. He has also been molded, initially quite against his will, in the role of a celebrity - a beloved star and public face of China's high culture. His girlfriend Juxian (Gong Li) is a prostitute, to whom he almost accidentally proposes, making her (and himself) "legitimate" to the masses when he marries her.Douzi is his acting partner, a homosexual who plays the role of the king's suicidal concubine in the same opera. As in Elizabethan England, only men were traditionally allowed on-stage, so, in a sense, Douzi's role was also forced upon him - although the film strongly suggests that his sexuality was more a matter of nature than nurture (he was born with an extra finger, to symbolize that he was always "different" from the others). Ironically, he must hide his true sexual orientation from an adoring public, even as the unrequited love for his co-star brilliantly informs his performance as the concubine.As we follow the men's struggles throughout China's tumultuous journey into the modern world, it becomes apparent that they have accepted and even embraced the roles that were initially foisted upon them by circumstance. We come to realize that they may very well have chosen them, had they been given the freedom to do so. At the center is the romantic triangle between Shitou, Douzi, and Juxian.All of which brilliantly sets the stage for one of the saddest third acts in cinema, in which the lines between free will and determinism, the necessity of circumstance and the will of the inner self, will blur, cross, and cross again. Each of the three main characters will betray and publicly denounce the others in order to survive, will claim allegiance to one revolution or another, and perhaps even mean it for a time, to stay the hands of the revolutionaries, whose shifting ideologies by turns celebrate and threaten each of them.In lesser hands such a story would be trite, morbid, and - well - melodramatic, in the bad sense of the word. But director Chen Kaige has a unique personal connection with the material, in that he denounced his own father during the Cultural Revolution - an act which he bitterly regretted later. It is therefore with sympathy and genuine compassion that he tells his tale, rather than cheap sentiment or maudlin histrionics.When made poorly a tale like this is insufferably turgid, awash with treacly tears. When made well - with care, precision, and truth - it is breathtaking.This is my favorite Chinese film.

I expected a love triangle - as stated on the DVD cover but this film is about so much more. It is an historical epic of gigantic proportions covering about fifty years of Chinese history. The film also serves as a metaphor for the lives of the actors. Viewed without proper insight, the viewer could miss many of the fine qualities associated with this film. The DVD cover attests 1)over 60 Critics had agreed it was one of the year's 10 best films in 1993, 2) it won the prestigious "Best Picture Honors" at the Cannes Film Festival, and 3) it won a Golden Globe as best foreign film. The film is highly artistic when viewed from multiple perspectives: the obvious surface view, the delicate and sensitive themes of male friendship/bonding, romantic love, political/historical changes, and the depth of human relationships which are thoroughly explored.It is about the training of young boys to be actors in the Peking Opera Academy which performs classical Chinese opera in large cities during tumultous times in China's history. They perform a classic piece about an Emperor who is deposed and his concubine, who makes the ultimate sacrifice for him: she commits suicide out of love and loyalty. Primarily, the film focuses on the lives of two specific actors, who become best friends from childhood well into adulthood. They suffer severe punishment in their early training for their stage roles and eventually become famous. Each plays one of the starring roles in this classic called "Farewell My Concubine" which is a famous and favorite Chinese opera. One plays the Emperor and the other his Concubine. The two actors are inextricably bound as friends and actors due to this Opera. Tensions develop in their adult friendship and relationship because one of them falls in love with a prostitute and marries her. Their relationship is obviously strained due to this marriage but the problems go much deeper. There are political upheavals which cause a great deal of stress and strife in the lives of the Chinese people and the opera performers are forced to perform under circumstances against their wills but they do so - to save their lives. Later, during Mao Tse Tung's "Cultural Revolution" - the actors are put on trial for their perceived political stance in the previous regime.The roots of this film run very deep. The film explores risky areas of human relationships, one of which includes male bonding which becomes a deeper same sex love desire that remains unfulfilled. It lasts 172 minutes which is nearly 3 hours, so one must really desire to see it and commit the necessary time for full appreciation. While I liked the film, I will give it only four stars despite the rave reviews by professional critics because some areas could have been cut shorter, without any loss of its artistry or depth. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

A beautiful and haunting love story - a childhood love that never fails. This is a beautiful scripted, beautifully acted piece of work. I saw it many years ago and it haunted my memory. From the awfulness of their upbringing - the cruelty and abuse - two young actors become the stars of classical Chinese theatre. It is one of the most sensitive explorations of the meaning of gender and gay love and the tragic outcomes that arise from absence of choice. It goes to places that 'La Vie En Rose' never touched. I would say more but I will spoil the story. Interwoven with their lives are the political traumas of an awakening state - China's revulsion at the past, and eventually its embracing of its culture in the Cultural Revolution. There is politics, colour, noise, love and performing arts. What's not to like but there are no cheesy endings here.

It is such a long time ago that I saw this at the cinema. I had forgotten what a fantastic film this is as we are taken on an amazing sojourn through a very turbulent part of Chinese History. It has an epic quality reminiscent of Bertolucci's 'The Last Emperor' albeit on a smaller scale. This is beautifully written and directed with very powerful performances from its leads. Like the best of Chinese historical dramas this looks visually amazing. Highly recommended.

Been waiting for this to come out on DVD for a long time, had it on video which has now lost it's picture quality, so pleased to get this.It's one of those films which stays with you, and a reminder of old China in the days of art etc. before the Red revolution and the destruction of all art, which now, ironically, China is now trying to recuperate.This is truly a wonderful story of those times filled with pathos and hope.

Absolutely entrancing and moving tale of life between two Beijing Opera performers and one woman from the turbulent time before the Japanese invasion to communism and the 1970s. The costumes were elaborate and the actors were superb. An epic of a movie lasting 3 hours long. DVD is all region, in Mandarin with English or Korean subtitles.

So, I bought the DVD when my video tape wore out. I was delighted to find it. What has interested me the most about this film is the way I see different things in the film over the years . . . A piece of art which changes its "meaning" as you see it again and again, over a long period of time, is a great piece of art. I guess that's the definition of a "classic".