Customer Reviews

Farewell My Concubine [VHS]

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

"Farewell My Concubine" was released exactly 10 years ago (1993). I meant to rent it for the longest time, because I've heard nothing but rave reviews about the director, the actors, and the storyline. I finally rented the director's cut DVD this weekend. It was nearly 3 hours long and worth every minute of my time. Sadly to say, Leslie Cheung, the male lead in the film, suddenly committed suicide in Hong Kong on April 1st. His death prompted me to rent "Farewell My Concubine," which I heard was one of the BEST performances of his career.

Cheung plays an emotionally tormented character, Douzi, who was raised in a strict and often brutal Beijing opera school. The film follows Douzi from childhood to adulthood. Cheung gave an emotional and moving performance. The other actors in the cast, Gong Li (the beautiful and talented actress who starred in "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Temptress Moon"), and actor Zhang Fengyi also gave outstanding performances.

Since Cheung's recent death, director Chen Kaige has said Leslie Cheung IS the character he played in "Farewell My Concubine." There is a hint of sadness mixed with helplessness and charisma surrounding Cheung's character. The dramatic and chilling ending moved me. I highly recommend this film to not just fans of Chinese cinema, but to all audiences who can appreciate a beautifully acted, well scripted, and brilliantly shot film.

This award-winning 1993 Chinese film is an epic in every sense of the word. It is not only the story of some very interesting characters, it is also the story of the Peking Opera as well as modern Chinese history from 1924 to 1977. It is beautiful and sad and violent and romantic. And, along the way, I learned a lot about Chinese opera.

The performers are all male, and training for the young boys is harsh. Apprentices start in early childhood. They are beaten often for such infractions as forgetting their lines. They are forced to kneel for hours holding up buckets water. They are stretched into split positions in torturous agony. And yet, as we follow the story of two of these young boys, we come to understand that this horrible treatment resulted in classically trained performers, some of whom rose to great fame.

This is the story of two young orphan friends, Dousi and Shitou, played by three sets of actors depicting their childhood, then adolescence, then adulthood (and cast so well that it really seemed like the same actors growing up). Dousi is more delicate and excels in the role of the concubine. Shitou is more robust and always plays the king in "Farewell My Concubine" which is a classic Chinese opera. It's easy to see that Dousi is in love with Shitou but Shitou favors women and marries a the lovely Juxian, who he meets in a brothel. Immediately, there's a love triangle.

All this is set against the backdrop of first the Japanese invasion, then the Nationalist Army and then the Communists. The characters suffer through all this and adapt and struggle. There are horrible moments, especially when they renounce each other during the cultural revolution. My emotions were touched by their plight because I really felt I knew each of these people. I didn't even mind the almost-three-hour-long film because it seemed I was actually living their lives right with them. And there was no way it could have been told in a shorter time.

I loved this film. It's disturbing, of course. But yet, I came away with an understanding of China that I could never get from merely reading history books. Highly recommended.

Farewell My Concubine is about loss of identity. It is a study in how a person reacts to a slow and methodical stripping away of self. Because of this, the movie is almost a psychological study. Many people may think it is about repressed homosexuality in China, but they are missing the primary point.

The movie's main character, Cheng Dieyi, is the person most impacted by loss of identity, though it is also experienced by the other main characters as well. From the castration/mutilation inflicted on him by his mother at the beginning to his eventual suicide, it's as though layer by layer of his being is slowly peeled away. Let me for a moment simply regurgitate the way in which this happened.

Cheng Dieyi was born as a prostitute's son. From the very beginning, he would be considered a bastard child in almost every culture. His mother claims that he is getting in the way of her "business" at the local brothel and she seeks a way to be rid of him. She winds up taking him to a local acting troupe and when they refuse to take him because of his sixth finger on one hand, Dieyi's mother cuts it off. This can easily be seen as the act of castration. Then his identity is further stripped away by the acting troupe drilling it into his head that he is a woman, since he plays a woman in the theater. From this point on, he associates his lost masculinity with his best friend, Duan Xiaolou. However, even his friendship is taken away when Xiaolou becomes involved with-guess who-a prostitute. It should be apparent to all who see it, that the hatred he feels toward the prostitute, Ju Xian, is not only because she is taking away his confidant, but also because she reminds Dieyi of his mother. Like many people confronted with loss of identity, Dieyi seeks an avenue of escape by doing drugs. The last thing which he is able to keep as his identity is the role he performs on the stage as a concubine for the king of Chu-but even this is eventually lost when he is replaced by a child who he helps to rear.

Dieyi isn't the only one who loses his identity, however. Ju Xian struggled to rid herself of the emotional baggage attached to being a prostitute. She became involved with Xiaolou hoping to build a family and achieve some normalcy. However, Dieyi's relationship with Xiaolou complicates matters, and when she loses her unborn child almost all hope is lost. When Xiaolou disavows any love for her, her dream is shattered and she commits suicide.

From these two examples in the movie, one can see how one emotionally could be driven to suicide. Dieyi's loss of identity involves the stripping away of every aspect of his masculine self and a devaluation of things which he holds dear. Many people evaluate his relationship to Xialou as a homosexual one, and while it seems to be the case, I would argue that the relationship could also be merely one of a protector-devotee nature or possibly even an older-brother-younger-brother relationship. Ju Xian, likewise loses her self-respect by being a prostitute and later loses everything which could pull her out of this psychological trap. Since the events in China played a role in these two personal losses of identity, it is possible that the movie was simply expressing the author's personal sense of loss at the hands of a repressive cultural history. On the other hand, the fact that many events compound the loss of identity could simply be a way of showing how external forces can influence one's own sense of self. This last possibility is probably the author's intent, since the story could easily be told within the context of any tumultuous period-such as the United States during the Vietnam War era.

The end confirms my view of the film's portrayal of self-identity loss when Dieyi messes up the line in the play and says he is a boy not a girl. Throughout his life his identity as a man had been taken away. He struggled against it, was conquered by it, and eventually asserted what power he had left in the act of suicide. I felt tired and emotionally drained at the end of the movie. Farewell My Concubine, unlike any other film I have seen, superbly depicts human nature and is very insightful. It should be declared a masterpiece of not only Chinese cinema, but of film the world over.

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]

... and i'm chinese. this film is ridiculously well-made, as perfect in the realm of asian cinema as something like "the godfather" is in western cinema. read bill kang's review for specifics on the brilliant cinematography, acting, direction, and such, for his review represents my opinions well...

... so why am i writing this here? i don't write reviews often, but astonished as i was that there were reviewers who actually gave this film a rating of less than 5 stars, i decided to sift through all the entries and find out exactly what they had against this film... and not so surprisingly, the negative reviews came from westerners who thought that they might know better about chinese culture and history from reading books that other westerners have written than the chinese directors and scriptwriters themselves who've lived their entire lives in china, hong kong, and taiwan. -_-"...

is this film really that violent, really that gory? graphically, there is virtually no violence on screen... c'mon, hollywood is all blood and guts! that which disturbs and unsettles the viewer here is the psychological violence and perversion that chen so subtly (yet very effectively) communicates. and i'm sorry to shatter your ideas of the orient being an exotic paradise of incense, tiger balm, and petite women, but yes, psychological perversion can exist in a culture that has been around for over five thousand years. yes, eunichs did exist aplenty, and yes, these poor things did tend to have strange sexual interests, and no, you don't know nearly enough about chinese history to even begin placing things into context and making judgements.

... one reviewer was even kind enough to remind us not to let our children watch the film for the violence and the unsettling themes involved... well perhaps that's what the R-rating is for? just a thought... maybe that's why the film is rated R... i could be wrong...

if you are expecting kung-fu fighting, choreographed swordplay, or any other sort of monkey-antics some americans have come to associate with chinese filmmaking, do not watch this movie. your narrow mind might burst from the depth, breadth, and sheer beauty that radiates from every frame of this film, and the complexity of a plot that shows characters interacting with history and culture as much as they do with each other will completely escape you. if you're a viewer that's outraged by the audacity of the filmmakers behind such controversial films as, say, "monty python and the holy grail", this film is not for you. this film was not made in hollywood; do not expect a hollywood film. it is a film that is smart, unsettling, enlightening, and even educational, but the umbrella attribute that permeates the film above all and keeps us hypnotized is its breathtaking beauty...

I have to confess here that Farewell my concubine got me into the far eastern cinema. After many advises from the Chinese friends (I was a student back then)I decided to see this film without expecting much. In the end I was stunned by the beauty and power of this film.
Kaige directs a story of 2 opera actor (friends) from their childhood to post cultural revolution China. From the opera training onwards we not only see their lives as actors that influenced by many events, we also witness the emergence of new China.With the time period stretching from the rise of the conciousness of nationalism ,story moves thru second world war and Japanese invasion, Chinese civil war and mao era. Kaige does a wonderful job of telling the stories of Chinese people and the effects of the political climate over them.Confusion after confusion follows the characters on every turn of the history. Kaige tells his story with realistic camera shots and aided by excellent acting by Cheung,Li and Zhang. Portrayal of landscapes and people are all remarkable.
The lives of main characters are also well structured and told with aspects like the Cheung's hidden homosexuality and love towards his friend. Zhang and Cheung's friendship help them to overcome hard times. Also Gong Li's struggle to become a normal wife after living in brothel, is envied and challenged secretly by the Cheung. Just like the opera story film starts , emerges and ends tragically.
In sum , farewell my concubine is an award winner excellent movie. The film gets as realistic as it is without falling in to the trap of exaggerating any occasion. Both in terms of telling the story of characters as well as the climate in changing China, Kaige manages to balance everything so well and thus coming up with a classic. Check out to Live and Blue Kite also as similar films If you are interested .

This is a bittersweet love saga between loyalty of friends, lovers - a real and powerful illustration of human interaction that depicts layers of hatred/love, obsession/passion to the chinese opera, setting in between the 2-4 and 7-7 communist movement upheaval. I've been a Leslie Cheung fan for 5yrs now, and naturally I view all of his films with a pair of analytical lens. He is the most fascinating character in this film. From the beginning, his sense of identity is confused. Not only is he attracted to men, but his role as a woman creates a certain ambivalence about his own gender. In childhood, the refrain soliloquy of 'I am a girl' is drilled into him so that he can effectively assume the role of the concubine in the opera; but, his self-identity blurs/entangles in the contrast between life on stage vs. real life. This is definitely a film worth watching, both epic and intimate, literal and emotional. I also loved the theme song by Leslie Cheung too, where he sings "Wei sheh meh nee boo dong, you le ai jui you tong.(why is it that you don't understand, where there is love, there is also pain.)"

This wonderful Chinese film was nominated for several academy awards. It is a story about Chinese opera and the cultural revolution but at another level it is about relationships. We follow the story of two actors together since childhood and the woman who comes between them. The cinematography is breathtaking (It should be no surprise that director Chen Kaige was originally a cinematographer). Pause the film occasionally (especially if you have a DVD) and just savour the rich colours and textures of the film. It is a gem.

This was Leslie Cheung's first major role and it also stars Gong Li who is wonderful in Yimou Zhang's trilogy Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou. (If you like Concubine as much as I did, you will also love these three movies.)

I am stunned. For years and years I've been going to the movies every other weekend hoping, like every other unjaded moviegoer, to not just be pleasantly occupied for three hours, but to be touched, haunted. This movie did all that and more. Believe me, this is no formulaic, effective-but-conventional tearjerker that you'd cry over only when your brain is on vacation. This movie moves BECAUSE of the intellect--along with intuition. This is the kind of movie that stays with you for days. Undeniably, the plot is complex. Yet not in that pretentious, Oscar-hopeful, deliberately esoteric way. During climatic scenes, such as when Xiaolou announces his engagement to Juxian, there are no facades, no twists, no perversions -- only simple, courageous, incorrigible human emotion. Dieyi, grotesquely beautiful in his makeup, emits "Don't leave," from his most unspeakable depth with absolute purity and desperation. And that single, passive tear on his face when he was singing drunk with Yuan -- God! That was absolute perfection! The gorgeous picture with the bleary blue background and Dieyi's powdered face and pink lips, the understated devastation, the unchangeable devotion. (Yes, even Xiaolou's marriage could not change Deiyi's devotion -- nothing could. That's the whole theme of this movie, and of the opera). This movie transcends gender. And for those people that see it only as a protest to China's oppression during the Cultural Revolution: are you people blind? This movie is about what it is to be human! The boundaries of gender, of childhood abuses, of love! And the most amazing thing is this movie is not melodramatic--it is real. All the actors were brilliant, the opera scenes are haunting. There are motifs and bits of symbolism scattered all through the movie that rival even Shakespeare. There is so much meaning in this story. All in all, the most memorable and substantive movie I've ever seen in my life.

China had been through so many dramatic social transforms during the last century, from the feudal dynasty, the warlord period, the Japanese invasion, Republic of China, communism, Cultural Revolution to the current era. It took a lot of top talents from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to make the movie "Farewell my concubine", which brilliantly tells these transforms from the tragic story of two opera performers.

"Farewell my concubine" is a famous story in the Chinese history. It tells that after the misrule of the Qin dynasty, two main forces rose to compete with each other for the reign. One is called Han, which is led by Liu Bang, a subtle and somewhat unfaithful man, and the other, Chu, led by the bold Xiang Yu (the King), who had peerless courage. In the decisive battle, the army of Chu was severely beaten. The King was trapped with remaining troop and little grain. The defeat was doomed. At the night, Hang's troop started to sing Chu's folk songs all around to make Chu's soldiers forgo their fighting spirit. Hearing the homeland's folk songs when the King was drinking, he sighed to his beloved concubine Yuji woefully: "My strength can uproot mountains; my courage is peerless in the country. But the fate is not on my side; even my black steed would not run away to save its life. What should I do with you?" Yuji danced for the King for the last time and sang in tears: "Hang's troops have taken the field, Chu's songs are all around. As your Highness's courage is over, why should this humble concubine value her own life any more?" The song ceased; she suddenly pulled out the King's sword and took her own life. On the following day, it came the final bout. The King, unable to accept the loss of honour, refused to cross the Great River to return to his homeland defeated. He fought to the last man and killed himself beside the river. The story of "Farewell my concubine" itself is just as famous as the war between Chu and Hang if not more. It has been recited again and again by generations through fictions, storytellers, operas, etc.

The movie started from 1924 in Beijing. A whore took her son (Chen Dieyi) to the opera school to ask the instructor to keep her son. But the instructor refused as the boy had six fingers on his right hand. In the cold winter, his mother chopped off the extra finger when his hands are frozen to numb. From there started the doomed tragic life of the boy. For having a feminal figure, he was trained to act female roles. In the school, Chen formed a close friendship with his senior Duan Xiaolou, who was trained to perform masculine roles. Chen had a hard time to accept being female in the opera at first. After rigorous and sometimes torturous training, he was eventually forced to admit the female role, but also became mixed up between opera and the real life.

After years, both of them became famous for the show "Farewell my concubine", in which Duan played the King and Chen played the concubine Yuji. But in real life, Chen was also obsessed by Duan, who had only brotherhood feeling towards him in return. Life went on well until the day Duan announced the decision to marry a whore named Juxian. Chen detested the matter for his dream of performing intimately with Duan for the whole life was ruined. He brought a real sword to Duan, telling him to perform separately in the future.

During the Japanese occupation of Beijing, Duan was arrested after a conflict with the Japanese soldiers in a performance. Juxian begged Chen to save Duan and as an exchange she would go back to the whorehouse. After being released, Duan despised Chen for performing for the Japanese. Juxian also ate her own words and kept Duan from performing again. At that time Chen's fame was at the climax. But the emptiness in his heart led him to opium.

When the old instructor came to know that the two separated, he summoned them and scolded harshly. Feeling shamed at the master's words, the two started perform together again.

After the anti-Japanese war, the lives of opera performers were no better. Once the soldiers were making passes at Chen during a performance. Duan could not stand it and the soldiers beat the performers. Pregnant Juxian lost her child in the fight and Chen was arrested for performing for the Japanese before. Duan and Juxian tried to save Chen, but disheartened Chen refused to cooperate in the court. When Duan was helpless, the court surprisingly announced the suspension of the case for a high official secretly wanted Chen to perform for him.

After the PRC was founded, during a performance for the PLA, Chen suddenly lost his voice due to overdose of opium. They apologized; expecting angry boos from the audience. But to their surprise, the PLA applauded warmly. They suddenly found that the whole world has changed overnight. Chen decided to quit opium and start a refreshed life. As they are consulted on the modern form of Beijing opera, Chen, over-obsessed by the opera, spoke out his opinions sharply on the shortcomings of the modern opera, for which he was regarded at backwardness at that time. Eventually he was dropped from the cast just before a performance, which broke the new dream he only just built up.

In the Culture Revolution, Duan was forced to confess the "guilt" of Chen. Stricken by the shock, Chen revealed the "guilt" of Juxian. Duan was again forced to admit: "She is a whore. I don't love her." Juxian lost all hope and hang herself in her red bridal dress.

After 11 years and the end of the 22-year separation on the stage, the two performers came back to an empty stage to perform "Farewell my concubine" one last time. Concubine Yuji: "Your Highness, please confer me with the sword". The King: "My concubine, no, don't take your life lightly." Chen pulled out the sword, the real blade that symbols the long relationship of the two, and ended his own tragic life in his broken dream.