Farewell My Concubine (1993)

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's 1977 Beijing and things are better. In 1924, Shitou is the lead boy in Master Guan's performing troupe in Beijing. Laizi tries to run away but fails. A mother from the brothel tries to leave her son with Guan but he refuses because of an extra finger. In desperation, she chops off his extra finger. They call him Douzi. It is a tough existence of brutal beatings and rigorous training. Years later, Laizi and Douzi run away. Douzi is so entranced by an opera performance. He becomes determined to take as many beatings as needed to be a star. They return to the troupe. Douzi willingly takes the beatings but Laizi hangs himself. Shitou and Douzi become close with Shitou taking the male roles and Douzi taking on the female roles. Shitou gets engaged to manipulative Juxian causing a rift between the duo. The story is rich. It is original. The acting is terrific. It is compelling. It is a long movie but it's an epic from another era. It's engaging from start to finish.

There is no doubt that this is a great movie. You could check out the awards it won. I just want to mention that the main hero of this movie is Leslie Cheung who is my favorite singer.One of his great song is When Love Fades Away（in Chinese Dang Ai Yi Cheng Wang Shi)that is the theme song of this movie. If you are interested in this song, you might as well give it a try. Well, it's a mandarin song, but as the saying goes" Music knows no boundary between countries".You might be impressed by the emotion it expresses. Besides, the following songs sung by Leslie are also great if you I want to know more.Silence is golden(Chen Mo Shi Jin)、In My Life Time(Jin Sheng Jin Shi)、Blamefully Beautiful（Guai Ni Guo Fen Mei Li)、The One Who Doesn't Want To Hold Me（Bu Xiang Yong Bao Wo De Ren)

After finishing watching "The Last Emperor", I found quite entertaining the way they portrayed events of modern Chinese history throughout the story of somebody's life. Since I know that movie might be a Hollywood-esque portray of those events, I looked for a movie with Chinese actors, that also developed through key events of modern Chinese history (e.g. the warlords, revolution, etc). Netflix suggested me "Farewell my concubine".This movie was definitely not my cup of tea:I found the first hour brutally violent, and hard to watch (the first 45-60 minutes). It might have been because in my opinion, the violence portray seemed to not help the development of the story.The movie felt too long, and probably since I did not like the first hour of the movie due to the fact stated above, the last hour and a half felt a bit boring (something I did not feel in "The last emperor" which was also a loooong movie).Finally. This is my own bias, since I do not like opera, the opera scenes seemed highly repetitive and the high pitch voice was hard to bear.

Most genuine is the parallel between opera and life. This is not alien to Chinese people but people in other culture are not familiar with this concept. Chinese people deem our life in other way is an opera and everyone has his own role. Tears, laughter, sorrow, anger, despair are the various emotions in the opera and the various experiences in life. Most important this concept is associated with the emptiness of life. Everything would be gone, just like an opera would end somehow. Despite the emptiness opera is so beautiful and stands for the delicacy and refinement of art. In the film Dieyi and Yuan performs their desperate love towards Opera, indicating their pursuit for the true, the good and the beautiful. Dieyi is a pure man pursuing his ideal both in art and in the real world. Yuan is not as perfect. He is a sophisticated speculator, and has struggled for wealth and fame for his whole life. But he is so obsessed with opera for it is perfect beauty. Dieyi is the incarnation of the beauty which he is dying for. In his pursuing for, protecting, and admiring Dieyi in spite of the others' disliking him and misunderstanding, we see respectable humanness.First time he saw Dieyi he can sense that he is not welcomed. But as a gentleman he expressed his admiration and then left. His directness and decisiveness shows his confidence as well, with a clear mind that he has something else what would win Dieyi's heart, other than money.His argument with Xiaolou on the opera performance shows his insist on art, independent thinking, and his knowledge in opera, and is a foreshadowing for his own competition with Xiaolou. Xiaolou got married and Dieyi was not happy and desperate. Yuan came comforting Dieyi and took him away. Or we say this time Dieyi followed him. He fulfilled his dream to perform the opera together with Dieyi although without any spectator. In his house Dieyi saw the sword and Yuan gives it away unconditionally. He knows Dieyi would leave anyway with the sword, but he never complains, but just gives what he has, to help fulfill Dieyi's dream.Later when Dieyi performed on stage he was interrupted by anti-Japanese leaflet. But Dieyi insisted to complete the performance. In the darkness only Yuan was watching. He really understands what Dieyi insists on, that is the independence of art in spite of any political or racial view. When Dieyi was on trial for betraying his country, it is Yuan that help secure Dieyi. He asks for nothing in return but wants to argue with Xiaolou for the previous performance issue. This is the first time he tries to prove others his pursuit for art. Before that he only did this with Dieyi. We can say he compels Xiaolou, or is willful. He loves Dieyi but doesn't want to occupy him. He lets Dieyi free and is there to protect him. This is unselfish and unconditional, and is different from the romantic love. Or we can say, the love for Dieyi is also his love for the purity of life and the beauty. He saw a Dieyi that lives out his beliefs and values, to some extent Dieyi is another Yuan in Yuan's eyes, standing for the part of Yuan that is free to pursue love and beauty. He loves Dieyi but doesn't want to occupy him. He lets Dieyi free and is there to protect him. This is unselfish and unconditional, and is different from the romantic love. Or we can say, the love for Dieyi is also his love for the purity of life and the beauty. He saw a Dieyi that lives out his beliefs and values, to some extent Dieyi is another Yuan in Yuan's eyes, standing for the part of Yuan that is free to pursue love and beauty. Yuan was executed in the end. Before he died he defends the opera art at a price of his life. He can die without pity, for he finally carries out his value. He never is able to perform on the stage, for he can't be a pure artist, but the execution of him brings him onto the stage, on the last day of his life. How ridiculous this is. The world has become insane. Yuan knows it pretty well and stepped onto the stage with ease. Yuan was executed in the end. Before he died he defends the opera art at a price of his life. He can die without pity, for he finally carries out his value. He never is able to perform on the stage, for he can't be a pure artist, but the execution of him brings him onto the stage, on the last day of his life. How ridiculous this is. The world has become insane. Yuan knows it pretty well and stepped onto the stage with ease.