Farewell My Concubine (film)

This article is about the film; for other media with the same title, see Farewell My Concubine.

Farewell My Concubine
Movie poster Cannes Film Festival
Directed by	Chen Kaige
Produced by	Hsu Feng
Written by	Lilian Lee (also novel) Lei Bik-Wa Lu Wei
Starring	Leslie Cheung Zhang Fengyi Gong Li
Music by	Zhao Jiping
Cinematography	Gu Changwei
Editing by	Pei Xiaonan
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	15 October, 1993
Running time	171 min.
Language	Mandarin
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige which depicts the effects of various Chinese political turmoils during the 20th century on a Peking opera troupe. Its Chinese title is Bàwáng Bié Jī (Traditional Chinese: 霸王別姬, Simplified Chinese: 霸王别姬), which literally translates as (the) Overlord Farewells (his) Concubine. The film is considered by critics to be one of the central works of the Fifth Generation movement that brought the Chinese film directors of that period to world attention. Like several other Fifth Generation films, Farewell My Concubine explores the effect of China's turbulent political landscape during the mid-20th century on human lives. In this case, the lives are those of two Peking opera performers and the woman who comes between them. The film is an adaptation of the novel by Lilian Lee.

Synopsis

The story begins in 1924 Performing in a Beijing market, Duan Xiaolou, then called Shitou [Stone] shames the crowd by breaking a stone on his head. Cheng Dieyi, then called Douzi [Bean], is presented to the Peking Opera training school by his mother, a prostitute who can’t raise him. Master Guan, director of the troupe, refuses him because possesses the noticeable birth defect of a superfluous finger, but accepts him after mother chops it off. He makes friends with Laizi and Shitou. Laizi craves candied crab apples. He and Douzi escape but return after seeing an opera performance that makes Douzi want to be a star. The brutal punishment for escaping is bestowed first on Deiyi. Laizi, who watches from a hiding, furiously begins to eat the rest of the candied crab apples. Seeing no end to the daily misery and rigors of training, he hangs himself Dieyi quickly attaches himself to Shitou, a young actor with talent, bravado, and a short temper. Dieyi is trained to play female roles. He practices the monologue “Dreaming of the World Outside the Nunnery,” stumbling to say, “I am by nature a girl, not a boy,” instead of the other way around. The monologue comes from the kunqu “The Record of an Evil Sea,” kuhai (the Evil Sea) being a Buddhist term for a life of sorrow. When he kept forgetting his line "By nature I'm a girl, not a boy," he faces severe punishment both from the master of the troupe and Xiaolou. At the same time, Xiaolou learns to hone his skills as a jing, a painted-face male lead. Eventually, Dieyi is able to overcome his natural tendency and reveals a great talent for acting. However, his stage charisma brings new problems: after an impressive performance, he is raped by an old and influential patron. On their way home after this traumatic incident , Dieyi spies an abandoned baby. The troupe master urges Dieyi to leave the baby, saying "we each have our own fate, or yuanfen, but Dieyi takes him in and eventually trains him. Both Shitou and Douzi graduate from the troupe and become renowned stars of the Peking opera scene and take on the stage names Cheng Dieyi, now played by Leslie Cheung, and Duan Xiaolou, now played by Zhang Fengyi. The adult Dieyi takes on feminine behaviour offstage as well as on. It becomes apparent that Dieyi is in love with Xiaolou, but the sexual aspects of his affection are not returned. When they become a hit in Beijing, a patron slowly courts Dieyi also after falling in love with Dieyi's character. Xiaolou, in the meantime, takes a liking to Juxian (Gong Li), a headstrong courtesan at the upscale "house of flowers." (Although she is later accused of being a "prostitute," she was somewhat more elevated than Dieyi's mother in the first part of the film). Xiaolou intervenes when a mob of drunk men harass Juxian and conjures up a ruse to get the men to leave her alone, saying that they are announcing their engagement. Juxian later buys her freedom and, deceiving him into thinking she was thrown out, pressures Xiaolou to keep his word. When Xiaolou announces his engagement to Juxian, Dieyi and Xiaolou have a falling out. The complex relationship between these three characters is then tested under the stress of the drastic political upheaval that encompasses China from the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War. From there, it examines both the characters' lives and the Chinese perception of Peking opera as they both endure the Kuomintang regime, the Chinese Revolution, and the Cultural Revolution. The portrayal of these events led the film to be initially banned in China upon its release.

Source text

Main article: Farewell My Concubine (play)

Running parallel with the film is the Peking opera play that is also known as Farewell My Concubine. As Dieyi and Xiaolou gain fame and notoriety within Peking opera's social circles, this play becomes Dieyi and Xiaolou's staple act and is performed numerous times throughout the film. The play is not nearly as long as the film may make it seem, and can actually be performed from start to finish within fifteen minutes. The events in the film parallel the play. The Concubine's fatal devotion to her doomed emperor is echoed by Dieyi's devotion to Xiaoluo. At one point in the film, Xiaoluo snaps to Dieyi, "I'm just an actor playing an emperor. You really are Yu Ji."

Awards and nominations

DVD cover for Farewell My Concubine (US)

• National Board of Review (USA), 1992
  • Best Foreign Film
• Cannes Film Festival, 1993
  • Palme d'Or - tied with Jane Campion's The Piano from New Zealand (1993)
  • FIPRESCI Award for Best Film in Competition
• BAFTA (British Academy Award), 1993
  • Best Film not in the English Language
• Mainichi Film Concours, 1993
  • Best Foreign Language Film
• Golden Globe Awards, 1993
  • Best Foreign Language Film
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association, 1993
  • Best Foreign Film
• Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, 1993
  • Best Foreign Film
• Chinese Performance Art Association, 1993
  • Special Award - Leslie Cheung
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 1993
  • Best Supporting Actress - Gong Li
• Political Film Society, USA, 1993
  • Special Award
• International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Camerimage), 1993
  • Siver Frog - Gu Changwei
  • Golden Frog - Gu Changwei (nominated)
• 65th Academy Awards, 1993
  • Best Foreign Film (nominated)
  • Best Cinematography - Gu Changwei (nominated)
• César Awards, 1994
  • Best Foreign Film
• Japanese Critic Society, 1994
  • Best Actor Award for Foreign Movie - Leslie Cheung

See also

• Cinema of China
• Cinema of Hong Kong

External links

• Farewell My Concubine at the Internet Movie Database
• A film review with emphasis on the relationship between the play and the film
• An essay on Farewell, My Concubine and other similar Fifth Generation Films
• Photo of Farewell To My Concubine Art Exhibition in Japan

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