Farewell My Concubine (film)

In 1924 Peking, a young boy by the name of Douzi is abandoned by his prostitute mother to a Peking opera troupe supervised by Master Guan, who like many other opera troupe leaders, would take in orphaned children as apprentices. There, Douzi is mocked by the other children for his mother's origin, but nonetheless is befriended by another boy about his age, Shitou, a boy with a talent for breaking stones with his head. As teenagers, Douzi trains to play dan (female heroine roles), while Shitou learns jing (male hero roles). When practicing the play Dreaming of the World Outside the Nunnery, Douzi mistakes the line "I am by nature a girl, not a boy" with "I am by nature a boy, not a girl," for which he receives severe physical punishment. Douzi and another student, Laizi, attempt to run away; Laizi buys candied hawthorns using Douzi's few coins, but Douzi decides to pursue acting seriously after being moved by an opera performance. Upon returning, they find the whole troupe being punished for their desertion, and Douzi steps in and is beaten in Shitou's place. As a result, Laizi eats the hawthorns and later hangs himself. Na Kun, an agent who provides funding for opera plays, comes to the troupe to seek potential actors. When Douzi repeats the same mistake in front of the agent, Shitou commands him to start over. Douzi finally delivers the entire monologue successfully and secures Na Kun's patronage. The troupe is invited to perform for eunuch Zhang. Shitou and Douzi are brought to Zhang's house where they find a finely crafted sword, which Shitou promises to one day gift to Douzi, as the hero would do for his concubine. Zhang asks to meet Douzi in his room and sexually assaults him. Shitou implicitly knows what happened, although Douzi does not speak of the assault. On their way home, Douzi rescues an abandoned baby, who later comes under Master Guan's training. Years later, Douzi and Shitou have become Peking opera stars, taking the names Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, respectively. Their signature performance is the play Farewell My Concubine, where Cheng Dieyi plays Consort Yu and Duan Xiaolou plays Xiang Yu; before every play, Dieyi would finish the stage makeup for Xiaolou as a small act of love. Their fame attracts the attention of the high-ranking Yuan Shiqing when he attends their performances. Yuan has come to possess the sword from Zhang's house, which he gives to Dieyi as a gift. Though pursued by Yuan, Dieyi is secretly in love with Xiaolou, who frequents a brothel where he meets Juxian, a headstrong prostitute who buys her freedom using her silk shoes after meeting Xialou to be with him; when Xiaolou marries Juxian, Dieyi and Xiaolou's relationship begins to fall apart, Dieyi refusing to continue finishing Xiaolou's stage makeup. The love triangle between Dieyi, Xiaolou, and Juxian leads to jealousy and betrayal, further complicated by political upheaval following the Second Sino-Japanese War. When Master Guan dies, the abandoned baby, now Xiao Si, comes under Dieyi's training to continue learning dan roles. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the opera is closed by the Japanese and Xiaolou is jailed. Juxian begs for Dieyi to help free him, so Dieyi agrees to play his signature role for the Japanese in order for Xiaolou to be released, as he claims the Japanese are able to appreciate the quality of the play. After the war, the Kuomintang military barge into the opera and arrest Dieyi for his performance in front of the Japanese invaders, an act which is considered as treason. His arrest triggers a fight in which Juxian loses the baby she was carrying. Desperate to save Dieyi, Xiaolou and Juxian turn to Yuan for help, who initially refuses, until Juxian reminds him it was him who allowed the Japanese entry to the opera and blackmails him by threatening to tell on him. During the trial, the witnesses commit perjury, claiming that Dieyi was tortured and forced to perform at gunpoint, which he denies when called to testify. The military interrupts the trial and Dieyi is freed under bail in order to perform for the new government. Afterwards, Dieyi becomes addicted to opium. performed in 2007. In the film, the hegemon-king (right) is played by Xiaolou, and the concubine (left) is played by Dieyi. When the communist forces win the civil war, Yuan is sentenced to death, and Xiao Si becomes an avid follower of the new government, questioning his teacher about his position regarding the new government approved plays and after receiving a negative answer, accuses him of being a capitalist. Dieyi's addiction negatively affects his performances and renders him unable to sing, but he is ultimately rehabilitated with the help of Xiaolou and Juxian. Xiao Si nurtures resentment against Dieyi because of his rigorous teachings and usurps his role in Farewell My Concubine in the middle of a performance. Xiaolou initially refuses to perform with Xiao Si, but the latter implicitly threatens him with the politics of not performing for the masses, and Xiaolou continues the performance. Devastated by the betrayal, Dieyi secludes himself and refuses to reconcile with Xiaolou. As the Cultural Revolution continues, the Peking Opera is prohibited and replaced with Maoist plays. The entire opera troupe is forced into a struggle session, accused by Xiao Si and Na Kun, by Red Guards. The opera troupe is forced to dress up and is paraded around town while being ridiculed by their captors as well as bystanders. Xiaolou's mighty and meaningful stage makeup becomes smudged after being beaten up by the Red Guards: Dieyi, in full costume of Consort Yu, calmly picks up the brush and finishes the stage makeup for a humiliated and weakened Xiaolou. Then, under pressure, Xiaolou accuses Dieyi of counterrevolutionary acts. After Xiaolou implies Dieyi is homosexual, Dieyi tells the guards that Juxian was a prostitute. To protect himself from further persecution, Xiaolou swears that he does not love Juxian and will "make a clean break" with her. Although humiliated, neither Xiaolou or Dieyi are convicted, but must continue to reenact the play for the new government. Juxian is heartbroken and returns the sword to Dieyi before committing suicide. Xiao Si is caught by the Red Guards singing Consort Yu's lines while admiring the lavish stage jewelry he took from Dieyi. In 1977, Dieyi and Xiaolou reunite, seeming to have mended their relationship. They once again practice Farewell My Concubine. During a break, Xiaolou begins reciting the line "I am by nature a boy," to which Dieyi makes the same mistake of finishing with "I am not a girl." As their performance reaches its climax, Dieyi takes Xiaolou's sword to cut his own throat, faithfully paralleling the concubine's final act in the opera. Xiaolou screams Dieyi's name, then softly calls out "Douzi..." ==Cast==

Chen Kaige was best known for his previous work, Yellow Earth, which followed a 'personal, direct and primitive' approach, but with Farewell My Concubine, he was looking to make a more commercialized artistic film. Chen Kaige was first given a copy of Lilian Lee's novel in 1988, and although Chen found the story of the novel to be "compelling", he found the emotional subtext of the novel "a bit thin". After meeting with Lee, they together recruited Chinese writer Lu Wei for the screenplay, and in 1991, he completed the first draft of the screenplay. Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung was used in the film to attract audiences because melodramas were not a popular genre. It was believed that it was the first film where Cheung spoke Mandarin Chinese. However, for most of the movie Cheung's voice is dubbed by Beijing actor Yang Lixin. Director Chen left Cheung's original voice in two scenes, where Cheung's voice is distorted by physical and mental distress. Due to Gong Li's international stardom, she was cast as one of the main characters in the film. ==Historical background==

The film is set based on five different periods in Chinese history, including the late Qing Dynasty, the Republican Era, the Japanese occupation, and the Cultural Revolution. This setting is significant, as it helped in developing the structure of the film and connecting individual experiences with Chinese history. By incorporating traditional Chinese opera, the film delves deeply into the psychological and emotional complexities of its central characters. Peking opera, as a classic Chinese traditional element, is interspersed in the film. The audience watches the drama while watching the movie, creating a double visual experience. Such addition of opera clips promotes the plot, expressing the character's state of mind while giving the audience space to interpret the character. Each facial makeup in the Peking opera represents a specific opera role: Ebert further praised the film for its ambitious narrative, noting that it "helped him to feel and imagine what it was like to live in China during those times". The film also examines the survival of traditional art forms, with Peking opera being presented as both a cultural foundation and a site of personal conflict. Director Chen Kaige's personal experiences during the Cultural Revolution, including denouncing his father, informed his vision for the film, adding authenticity to its depiction of the era's hardships. This directly challenged the rigid gender norms that were upheld in Maoist China. During the Cultural Revolution, the political class targeted Cheng's identity or ideological performances on old bourgeois traditions and, in this way, illustrated how the expression of identity was dictated by the political class. ==Release==

Release in China The film premiered in Shanghai in July 1993 but was removed from theatres after two weeks for further censorial review, and was subsequently banned in August. State censorship was a common aspect in post-Mao cinema, where films that were politically unacceptable, such as Judou and Raise the Red Lantern, were removed from theater. The 1990s saw the Chinese government trying to improve the country's image after political protests, especially in events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Scholar David Shambaugh writes that the government's new agenda focused on "restoring the appearance of unity in the leadership, ensuring the loyalty of the military, reestablishing social order, reasserting central control over the provinces, recentralizing and retrenching the economy, and redefining China's role in a post-Cold War international environment". Leslie Cheung had not yet publicly come out as bisexual at the time. His gender performance in the film was, in fact, authentic. However, due to the conservative attitude toward homosexual culture in the Chinese-speaking world, as well as governmental policies, the film did not get shown at other Chinese-language film festivals, prior to its release in cinemas. Box office and reception The film was released to three theaters on 15 October 1993, and grossed $69,408 in its opening weekend. The film grossed $5,216,888 in the US. In 2005, approximately 25,000 Hong Kong film fans voted it their favorite Chinese-language film of the century, placed after Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild. ==International audience==

Some critics point to the fact that Chen had created the film to fit both domestic and international audiences' tastes, as Chen understood some of the international audience's perceptions and attitudes towards sexuality in China. Miramax edited version At Cannes, the film was awarded the highest prize, the Palme d'Or. Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein purchased distribution rights and removed fourteen minutes, resulting in a 157-minute cut. This is the version seen theatrically in the United States and United Kingdom. According to Peter Biskind's book, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film, Louis Malle, Cannes jury president that year, said: "The film we admired so much in Cannes is not the film seen in this country [the U.S.], which is twenty minutes shorter – but seems longer because it doesn't make any sense. It was better before those guys made cuts." The uncut 171-minute version has been released by Miramax on DVD. 4K re-release In the fall of 2023, distributor Film Movement released the 4K restoration of the film theatrically in celebration of its 30th anniversary. It was the first time the uncut version was released in North American theaters. The Criterion Collection later announced a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray package for a July 2024 release. ==Music and soundtrack==

Critical reception Roger Ebert awarded the film four stars, praising the plot as "almost unbelievably ambitious" and executed with "freedom and energy". The New York Times critic Vincent Canby hailed it for "action, history, exotic color", positively reviewing the acting of Gong Li, Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi. In New York, David Denby criticized the "spectacle" but felt it would excel internationally, portraying a triumph of love and culture through the darkness. Hal Hinson, writing for The Washington Post, highlighted "its swooning infatuation with the theater- with its colors, its vitality and even its cruel rigors". Desson Howe for the same publication was less positive, writing that the first half had impact but gives way to "novel-like meandering", with less point, as the film reaches its conclusion. The film was included in The New York Timess 2004 list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made and Times 2005 list of Best Movies of All Time. It was ranked  97 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010, and No. 1 in Time Out's "100 Best Mainland Chinese Films" feature in 2014. The film has a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The critics consensus reads, "Chen Kaing's epic is grand in scope and presentation, and, bolstered by solid performances, the result is a film both horrifying and enthralling." The BBC placed the film at number 12 on its 2018 list of the 100 greatest foreign language films. It ranked at number 55 on the Hong Kong Film Awards Association (HKFAA)'s list of the Best 100 Chinese-Language Motion Pictures in 2005. The public ranked Farewell My Concubine atop a 2005 poll of the most beloved films in Hong Kong conducted by Handerson ArtReach. Criticism of attitudes to queer portrayal The film, one of the few mainstream Chinese productions featuring a queer protagonist, has become part of the queer canon in Chinese cinema. However, its treatment of homosexuality—particularly in comparison with the original novel—has been the subject of debate. At the premiere of Farewell My Concubine, Leslie Cheung recalled: "Chen Kaige once said to me, 'This is 1992, not 1929. Attitudes toward homosexuality should no longer be as sensitive as before.' I was very moved when I heard that." Nevertheless, in 2002, Cheung stated in a lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong: "In the novel version of Farewell My Concubine, Lilian Lee's treatment of homosexuality is relatively clear, tolerant, and natural. By contrast, Chen Kaige's film adaptation is marked by extreme homophobia, distorting the autonomy and independence of gay people." Cheung believed that the expansion of the character Ju Xian, played by Gong Li, was intended "to balance the gay elements in the story", which he said reflected "the director's reluctance to address same-sex relationships". Cheung also remarked: "During filming, my performance had to compensate for the director's avoidance of homosexual themes, and I could only do my best within my ability. I thought that if the film adaptation of Farewell My Concubine had been faithful to the novel and had further developed its gay themes, its standing among films on the subject would certainly have surpassed that of Happy Together, which I later made." • Top 10 (not ranked) – Dennis King, Tulsa World Accolades At the Cannes Film Festival, the film shared the Palme d'Or with Jane Campion's The Piano from New Zealand. Farewell My Concubine was the first, and as of 2025, remained the only, Chinese-language film to win the Palme d'Or. ==See also==