Farewell My Concubine (film)
패왕별희 (영화)
A 1993 China-Hong Kong co-production by Chen Kaige from Lilian Lee's novel. It follows two Peking opera actors, Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, who play the opera Farewell My Concubine together, across half a century to the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and was re-released in China with 14 minutes cut.
In depth
What is the story?
Beijing, 1924. A prostitute cuts off her boy Douzi's extra finger and leaves him at an opera school. Amid brutal beatings only his elder Shitou protects him. Trained for female roles, Douzi keeps saying "I am by nature a boy" for the line "I am by nature a girl", until, before a patron and at Shitou's command, he at last delivers it. Soon afterwards the old eunuch Zhang assaults him.
As Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou they captivate Beijing as the concubine and the king in Farewell My Concubine. Dieyi carries the stage love beyond the stage, but Xiaolou marries the prostitute Juxian. Under the Japanese occupation Dieyi sings for the Japanese to free Xiaolou, and after the war the Nationalists try him as a traitor. He sinks into opium, and in the Communist era the orphan he raised, Xiao Si, takes his role.
In 1966 Red Guards drag out the troupe. Dieyi, dressed as the concubine, calmly repairs Xiaolou's spoiled makeup. But Xiaolou, under pressure, denounces him; Dieyi exposes Juxian's past; Xiaolou swears he does not love his wife; Juxian hangs herself. Eleven years later the two old actors rehearse the piece again and Xiaolou brings up the old line. Dieyi draws the sword and kills himself like the concubine. Xiaolou cries "Dieyi!", then softly "Douzi."
Why was it banned and then released?
It opened in Hong Kong in January 1993 and that year shared the Palme d'Or with The Piano, the first Chinese-language film to win it. A few weeks after its release in China the Politburo demanded changes, objecting to its depiction of homosexuality and gender identity, a leading character's suicide and the turmoil of the 1960s. It was approved again in September with 14 minutes removed, a move explained as silencing international backlash and helping the bid for the 2000 Olympics.
How does it connect with the director's life?
The scene of Xiaolou denouncing Dieyi echoes Chen Kaige's own past. As a Red Guard in the Cultural Revolution he denounced his father, a decision he came to regret and one said to inform the film's depiction of that era. That father, Chen Huai'ai, co-directed the film of The Song of Youth.
How is it judged?
Roger Ebert wrote that it helped him imagine what it was like to live in China in those times. Scholars continue to debate Dieyi's identity, reading both the opera's shaping of him and his own attachment. Most of Cheung's lines were dubbed by a Beijing actor; Chen kept his voice only in two scenes where distress distorts it.