1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production

4. Release
     Release in China   Box office and reception  Miramax edited version 

5. Reception
    Critical reception  Accolades 

6. See also

7. References

8. Further reading

9. External links

• Leslie Cheung
• Zhang Fengyi
• Gong Li}}

Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese drama film directed by Chen Kaige. It is one of the central works of the Fifth Generation movement that brought Chinese film directors to world attention.{{sfn|Clark|2005|p=159}}{{sfn|Zha|1995|pp=96–100}} Similar to other Fifth Generation films like To Live and The Blue Kite, Farewell My Concubine explores the effect of China's political turmoil during the mid-20th century on the lives of individuals, families, and groups. In this case, the affected are two male stars in a Beijing opera troupe and the woman who comes between them.

The film is an adaptation of the novel by Lilian Lee, who is also one of the film's screenplay writers. Farewell My Concubine stars Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi and Gong Li. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win other honours.

Plot

As the film opens, a street crowd watches a troupe of boys perform Peking opera, supervised by their aging director, Master Guan. When one of the boys, Laizi attempts to run away, another boy performer Shitou (literally meaning "stone") placates the crowd by breaking a brick on his head; the crowd cheers, but Shitou is later punished for the stunt.

A prostitute begs Master Guan to accept her son in the troupe. Master Guan initially rejects him because of his supernumerary finger. She then uses a cleaver to cut off her son's extra finger and manages to sign the contract. Shitou welcomes the newcomer as "Douzi" (literally meaning "bean"), and the two boys become friends.

A few years pass. Laizi and Douzi run away as they cannot bear the toughness of the training. When they are on the street, they witness a performance by an opera master that inspires them to return to the troupe. They find Shitou being beaten for allowing their escape, and Douzi accepts his punishment as Master Guan beats him mercilessly. Shitou tries to intervene, when an assistant informs them that Laizi has hanged himself.

Douzi attaches himself to Shitou and is trained to play dan (female) roles. Shitou learns the jing, a type of painted-face male leading role. When Douzi practises the line "I am by nature a girl, not a boy" in "Dreaming of the World Outside the Nunnery", he keeps mistaking the line into "I am by nature a boy...". When he repeats this mistake in front of an agent who might fund the troupe, Shitou viciously jams Master Guan's brass tobacco pipe in Douzi's mouth as punishment,^[2] causing his mouth to bleed. Douzi looks dazed, but whispers, "I am by nature a girl... not a boy." The troupe cheer, having secured the agent.^[1]

The eunuch Zhang appreciates their performance and summons Shitou and Douzi for an audience. Shitou admires a beautiful sword in Zhang's collection, stating that if he were emperor, Douzi would be his queen. Douzi responds that one day he hopes to give Shitou a sword like that. Douzi is to meet Zhang alone, and catches him in a lascivious embrace with a young girl. Douzi is afraid as the man eyes him up and down, and seeks to be with Shitou, but Zhang catches him and pushes him to the ground. Hours later he emerges, and Shitou cannot get him to say a word. It is clear that Douzi has been sexually assaulted. On their way home, Douzi spies an abandoned baby, and despite Master Guan's urging that "we each have our own fate (yuanfen)" Douzi adopts the baby and eventually Master Guan trains him.

Douzi and Shitou become Peking opera stars under the stage names Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou. One of their hit performances is the play Farewell My Concubine where Dieyi plays the concubine Consort Yu and Xiaolou plays the romantic hero Xiang Yu. The adult Dieyi is in love with Xiaolou, but the sexual aspects of his affection are not returned. A patron, Yuan Shiqing, slowly courts Dieyi. Xiaolou takes a liking to Juxian, a headstrong courtesan at the upscale House of Blossoms. Xiaolou intervenes when a mob of drunk men harass Juxian and says that they are announcing their engagement. Juxian later buys her freedom from her own savings and, deceiving him into thinking she was thrown out, pressures Xiaolou to keep his word. When Xiaolou announces their engagement, Dieyi and Xiaolou have a falling-out. Dieyi calls her "Pan Jinlian" (a "dragon lady" from the novel Golden Lotus). Dieyi takes up with Master Yuan, who gives him Zhang's sword. An aged Master Guan shames them into re-forming the troupe.

The complex relationship between these three characters is then tested in the succession of political upheavals that encompass China from the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film also follows the fates of Na Kun, who turns his theater troupe over to the new government after 1949, and the abandoned baby, called "Xiao Si" (literally meaning "little fourth brother"), who is trained in dan roles. Xiao Si and Douzi have an argument about the physical punishments in the training, at the end of which Xiao Si threatens revenge. At a performance of the play Farewell My Concubine, the role of the Consort Yu is usurped by Xiao Si with Xiaolou's complicity. Betrayed, Dieyi leaves and becomes addicted to opium. Later, Xiaolou and Juxian help him to recover and the troupe surrounds him to congratulate his return to health.

On the eve of the Cultural Revolution, Shitou and Juxian are seen burning now-contraband literature and clothing. They make love with Dieyi witnessing from the window. The scene shifts to Shitou being questioned by the Red Guards on a few allegedly unpatriotic words he said years ago. Xiao Si is seen in the background, seemingly in a position of power. The entire opera troupe is taken out in public for a humiliating struggle session by the Red Guards. Under duress, Shitou confesses that Douzi performed for the Japanese army and may have had a relationship with Yuan Shiqing. Enraged, Douzi tells the mob that Juxian was a prostitute. Shitou is forced to admit that he married a prostitute but swears that he does not love her and will never see her again. Juxian is crushed to hear his words and commits suicide. Xiao Si is seen in a gym practising Consort Yu's role, happy over having usurped Douzi's position, but the group of Red Guards catches him in the act and his fate is unclear.

The film then jumps to Douzi and Shitou's reunion in 1977. They are practising Farewell My Concubine, and their relationship seems to have mended since the tribunal and suicide of Shitou's wife. They exchange a smile and Shitou begins with the line that gave Douzi trouble forty years ago. Douzi makes the same error of finishing the line with "I am not a girl". Shitou corrects him and they continue practising. Douzi then commits suicide using the sword in the play.

Cast

• Leslie Cheung as Cheng Dieyi (程蝶衣) / Xiaodouzi (小豆子)
  • Yin Zhi as Cheng Dieyi (teenager)
  • Ma Mingwei as Cheng Dieyi (child)
• Zhang Fengyi as Duan Xiaolou (段小樓) / Xiaoshitou (小石頭)
  • Zhao Hailong as Duan Xiaolou (teenager)
  • Fei Yang as Duan Xiaolou (child)
• Gong Li as Juxian (菊仙 Júxiān)
• Ge You as Yuan Shiqing (袁世卿 Yuán Shìqīng)
• Lü Qi as Master Guan (Simplified: 关师傅, Traditional: 關師傅, Pinyin: Guān-shīfu)
• Ying Da as Na Kun (那坤 Nā Kūn)
• Yidi as Eunuch Zhang (Simplified: 张公公, Traditional: 張公公, Pinyin: Zhāng-gōnggong)
• Zhi Yitong as Saburo Aoki (青木 三郎, Chinese Pinyin: Qīngmù Sānláng, Japanese: Aoki Saburō)
• Lei Han as Xiaosi
  • Li Chun as Xiaosi (teenager)
• Li Dan as Laizi (Simplified: 小癞子, Traditional: 小癩子, Pinyin: Xiǎo Làizǐ)
  • Yang Yongchao as Laizi (child)
• Wu Dai-wai as Red Guard (Simplified: 红卫兵, Traditional: 紅衛兵, Pinyin: Hóngwèibīng)

Production

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.^[4]{{sfn|Braester|2010|p=335}}

Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung was used in the film to attract audiences because melodramas are not a popular genre. (Cheung's voice is dubbed by Beijing actor Yang Lixin.) Due to Gong Li's international stardom, she was cast as one of the main characters in the film.^[2]

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 subsequently banned in August. The film was objected to for its portrayal of homosexuality, suicide, and violence perpetrated under Mao Zedong's Communist government during the Cultural Revolution. Because the film won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, the ban was met with international outcry.^[3] Feeling there was "no choice" and fearing it hurt China's bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, officials allowed the film to resume public showings in September. This release featured a censored version; scenes dealing with the Cultural Revolution and homosexuality were cut, and the final scene was revised to "soften the blow of the suicide".^[4]

Box office and reception

The film was released to three theaters on 15 October 1993, and grossed $69,408 in the opening weekend. Its final grossing in the US market is $5,216,888.^[5]

In 2005, some 25,000 Hong Kong film-enthusiasts voted it their favorite Chinese-language film of the century (the second was Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild).^[6]

Miramax edited version

At the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, the film was awarded the highest prize, the Palme d'Or.^[7] Miramax Films mogul Harvey Weinstein purchased the distribution rights and removed fourteen minutes, resulting in a 157-minute cut. This is the version seen in U.S. theaters (and also in the U.K.). According to Peter Biskind's book, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film, Louis Malle, who was president of the Cannes jury 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.

Reception

Critical reception

The film was included in The New York Times{{'}} list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made in 2004^[13] and Time{{'}}s list of Best Movies of All Time in 2005.^[14] It was ranked {{abbr|No.|number}} 97 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.^[15] and No. 1 in Time Outs "100 Best Mainland Chinese Films" feature in 2014.^[16] The film has an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 reviews.^[17]

Accolades

At Cannes, it tied for the Palme d'Or with Jane Campion's The Piano from New Zealand.^[12] Farewell My Concubine remains to date the only Chinese-language film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.^[18]

See also

• Cinema of China
• Cinema of Hong Kong
• List of films based on military books (pre-1775)
• 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

References

Further reading

• {{cite book|last=Braester |first=Yomi |title=Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract |others=Rey Chow, Harry Harootunian, Masao Miyoshi |date=17 March 2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham [NC] |isbn=9780822392750 |p=335|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkGBLdtkxQkC&pg=PA335#v=onepage&q=%22Zhou%20Xiaowen%22 |accessdate=3 February 2016 |via=Google Books |ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |last=Clark |first=Paul |title=Reinventing China: A Generation and Its Films |year=2005 |publisher=The Chinese University Press |location=Hong Kong |ref=harv}}
• 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.
• {{cite book |last=Leung |first=Helen Hok-Sze |title=Farewell My Concubine: A Queer Film Classic (Large Print 16pt) |year=2010 |publisher=Read How You Want, Arsenal Pulp Press |location=Vancouver |isbn=978-1459608368 |ref=harv}}
• 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).
• {{cite book |last=Zha |first=Jianying |authorlink=Jianying Zha |title=China Pop : How Soap Operas, Tabloids, and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture |year=1995 |publisher=The New Press, W.W. Norton |location=New York |ref=harv}}
• Zhang, Benzi. "Figures of Violence and Tropes of Homophobia: Reading Farewell My Concubine between East and West." Comparative Studies in the World's Civilizations 33, 2 (1999): 101–109.

External links

• {{IMDb title|0106332|Farewell My Concubine}}
• {{allrovi movie|131112|Farewell My Concubine}}
• {{mojo title|farewellmyconcubine|Farewell My Concubine}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|farewell_to_my_concubine|Farewell My Concubine}}
• A film review with emphasis on the relationship between the play and the film

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