Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige (1993)

Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige (1993) was one of the rare Chinese films that has made its way to Western audiences. it was acclaimed by Western critics and received awards from various critics organizations. The film also represented a shift in artistic opportunities in China. The film is an opportunity for Westerners to see inside China today, to appreciate the state of Chinese filmmaking, and to gain a different view of humanity from a filmmaker who has a strong command of the medium.

The story of the film covers a long period in Chinese history. The film begins with a prologue in which two of the main characters are preparing for a farewell performance of their best theatrical vehicle, a piece called "Farewell My Concubine." They are stage performers in the Beijing Opera, and much of the spectacle in the film derives from the way the opera in China is conducted, with characters wearing theatrical masks and huge headdresses, and with the swirling yellow curtains that serve as a backdrop to the performers. The farewell performance just noted is taking place in 1977, and the film then shifts to the 1920s when these two characters are children in the streets of Beijing, a period of great turmoil, with rioting in the streets, warlords attempting to assert their power, Western forces attempting to exploit the Chinese for their goods, and tension among social classes everywhere. A theatrical troupe is being harassed by the police until the boy Shitou uses a kung-fu t

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sing his sword to kill herself and so to thwart the enemy. This opera is symbolic of the destinies of the two young men. The play they perform represents the theme of eternal fidelity: The central irony of Chen's film lies in the contrast between this opera's vision of a poor, idealized till-death-do-us-part union and the turbulent offstage relationship of its two leading interpreters. Cheng and Duan have been instructed by their teacher--an old man who enforces the discipline of theatrical art with a rigor that amounts to sadism--to stick together for life, and they do; but for long stretches of their careers they seem less like mythic lovers than like miserable, muddling-through partners in an arranged marriage (Rafferty 121). Cheng is the one who believes that their offstage life should reflect their stage roles, and yet those lives rarely do. When Duan becomes interested in the prostitute Juxian. Her presence splits the two men up, and yet Cheng returns to sing for the Japanese after they have imprisoned Duan precisely because Juxian has asked him to. She also promises to get out of their lives, and she breaks that promise almost as a matter of course: For the rest of the picture, Cheng and Juxian fight over Duan, i

Category: Film - F