Farewell My Concubine (film)

Douzi, a boy endowed with feminine features, is abandoned by his prostitute mother to an all-boys Peking opera troupe supervised by Master Guan. He befriends Shitou, a student of the troupe.

A few years later in 1938, a teenage Douzi is trained to play dan (female roles), while Shitou learns jing (painted face male roles). When practicing the play "Dreaming of the World Outside the Nunnery", Douzi accidentally substitutes the line "I am by nature a girl, not a boy" with "I am by nature a boy, not a girl," and is disciplined by the instructors. Douzi along with another student, Laizi, attempt to run away, but Douzi decides to pursue acting seriously after witnessing an opera performance. Upon returning, they find the whole troupe being punished for their desertion, and Douzi is beaten. As a result, Laizi hangs himself.

An agent who provides funding for opera plays comes to the troupe to seek potentials. When Douzi repeats the same mistake in front of the agent, Shitou commands him to start over. Douzi finally whispers, "I am by nature a girl, not a boy". He delivers the entire monologue successfully, to the joy of the troupe, and secures the agent. 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. Douzi does not mention this to anyone, but Shitou implicitly knows what happened. On their way home, Douzi adopts an abandoned baby, who later comes under Master Guan's training.

Memorabilia from the film exhibited at "The Art of Leslie Cheung's Movie Images", April 2013, Hong Kong Central Library.

Years go by, Douzi and Shitou become Peking opera stars under stage names Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, respectively. Their signature performance is the play Farewell My Concubine, where Dieyi plays the concubine Consort Yu and Xiaolou plays the hero Xiang Yu. Their fame attracts the attention of Yuan Shiqing, a reputable person who attends their performances. Yuan Shiqing also possesses a sword similar to the one that Dieyi and Xiaolou found, which he gives to Dieyi. The adult Dieyi has an unrequited love for Xiaolou, but when Xiaolou marries Juxian, a headstrong courtesan at an upscale brothel, Dieyi and Xiaolou's relationship begins to fall apart. The love triangle between Dieyi, Xiaolou, and Juxian leads to jealousy and betrayal, which is further complicated by the successive political upheavals 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.

When the communist forces win the civil war, Xiao Si becomes an avid follower of the new government. Dieyi's addiction to opium negatively affects his performances, but he ultimately rehabilitates 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 during one performance, without anyone telling Dieyi beforehand. Devastated by the betrayal, Dieyi secludes himself and refuses to reconcile with Xiaolou. As the Cultural Revolution continues, the entire opera troupe is put on a struggle session by the Red Guards where, under pressure, Dieyi and Xiaolou accuse each other of counterrevolutionary acts. Dieyi also tells the guards that Juxian was a prostitute. To protect himself from further prosecution, Xiaolou swears that he does not love her and will "make a clean break" with her. Juxian is heartbroken and returns the sword to Dieyi before committing suicide. Afterward, Xiao Si is caught by the Red Guards when he is singing Consort Yu's lines to the mirror alone in a practice room.

In 1977, Dieyi and Xiaolou reunite, seeming to have mended their relationship. They once again practice Farewell My Concubine; Xiaolou begins with the line "I am by nature a boy," to which Dieyi makes the same mistake of finishing with "I am not a girl." As they finish their performance, Dieyi takes Xiaolou's sword and slits his own throat, paralleling the concubine's final act in the opera. Xiaolou turns around in shock, and calls out Dieyi's name, and before the screen fades to black, he meekly whispers Dieyi's name when they were children: Douzi.

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 recruited Chinese writer Lu Wei for the screenplay, and in 1991 the first draft of the screenplay came about.[7][8] The director chose the heroic suicide of Dieyi over original story's banality in order to present the “Lie nu” image of Dieyi to emphasize the women's liberation which was commonly found in the Fifth Generation films.[9]

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.[10] Due to Gong Li's international stardom, she was cast as one of the main characters in the film.[11]

The historical background of the film is multi-layered and complicated, which contributes to the motif and the form of the film.[2] The 1990s period saw China trying to do damage control to the country's image after the massacre that happened during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. David Shambaugh talks about the government's new agenda that 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".[12] In addition to the mentioned changes in the political climate, at the time of the film's release, the atmosphere around the criticism of Cultural Revolution shifted. As Luo Hui notes "criticizing the Cultural Revolution had become permissible, even fashionable", allowing the film to highlight the devastation the world of art, as well as other aspects of Chinese society like medicine and education, suffered at the hands of the Cultural Revolution movement.[13]

The international perspective of the movie were put into question by critics who are concerned that the visual and artistic settings in the movie are too culturally inherent. On the other hand, the contents are internationally applicable. The enriching contexts, symbols, and political icons are turned into colorful Oriental spectacles that arouse Westerner's fantasies. China's image is used as an object of signification, a cultural exhibition on display and a major selling point. Thus, they charge the movie for dancing to the tunes set forth by the Western cultural imaginary about China.[17]

Some critics point to the fact that Chen lives in the United States, which have provided him with overall understanding of international reception and engineered the movie to fit a domestic and international audience. Chen knows how to tell a more comprehensible story to Westerners. Chen understands the international audience's perceptions and attitudes towards Chinese history, and sexuality.[18]

• Cinema of China
• Cinema of Hong Kong
• List of submissions to the 66th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Hong Kong submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• Braester, Yomi (17 March 2010). Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract. Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi. Durham [NC]: Duke University Press. p. 335. ISBN 9780822392750. Retrieved 3 February 2016 – via Google Books.
• Clark, Paul (2005). Reinventing China: A Generation and Its Films. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
• Braester, Yomi. Farewell My Concubine: National Myth and City Memories. In Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes, edited by Chris Berry, 89–96. London: British Film Institute, 2003.
• Leung, Helen Hok-Sze (2010). Farewell My Concubine: A Queer Film Classic (Large Print 16pt). Vancouver: Read How You Want, Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 978-1459608368.
• Kaplan, Ann. Reading Formations and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine. In Sheldon Lu, ed., Transnational Chinese Cinema: Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
• Larson, Wendy. The Concubine and the Figure of History: Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine. In Sheldon Lu, ed., Transnational Chinese Cinema: Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997; also published as Bawang bieji: Ji yu lishi xingxiang, Qingxiang (1997); also in Harry Kuoshu, ed., Chinese Film, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
• Lau, Jenny Kwok Wah. Farewell My Concubine': History, Melodrama, and Ideology in Contemporary Pan-Chinese Cinema. Film Quarterly 49, 1 (Fall, 1995).
• Lim, Song Hwee. The Uses of Femininity: Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine and Zhang Yuan's East Palace, West Palace. In Lim, Celluloid Comrades: Representations of Male Homosexuality in Contemporary Chinese Cinemas. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, 2006, 69–98.
• Lu, Sheldon Hsiao-peng. "National Cinema, Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital: The Films of Zhang Yimou." In Transnational Chinese Cinema, edited by Sheldon Lu, 105–39. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 199.
• McDougall, Bonnie S. "Cross-dressing and the Disappearing Woman in Modern Chinese Fiction, Drama and Film: Reflections on Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine." China Information 8, 4 (Summer 1994): 42–51.
• Metzger, Sean. "Farewell My Fantasy." The Journal of Homosexuality 39, 3/4 (2000): 213–32. Rpt. in Andrew Grossman, ed. Queer Asian Cinema: Shadows in the Shade. NY: Harrington Press, 2000, 213–232.
• Xu, Ben. "Farewell My Concubine and Its Western and Chinese Viewers." Quarterly Review of Film and Television 16, 2 (1997).
• Zha, Jianying (1995). China Pop : How Soap Operas, Tabloids, and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture. New York: The New Press, W.W. Norton.
• Zhang, Benzi. "Figures of Violence and Tropes of Homophobia: Reading Farewell My Concubine between East and West." Journal of Popular Culture: Comparative Studies in the World's Civilizations 33, 2 (1999): 101–109.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Farewell My Concubine (film).

• Farewell My Concubine at IMDb
• Farewell My Concubine at AllMovie
• Farewell My Concubine at Box Office Mojo
• Farewell My Concubine at Rotten Tomatoes
• A film review with emphasis on the relationship between the play and the film