Farewell My Concubine 霸王別姬 1993- China

Today, we explore the 1993 Chinese film Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬) directed by Chen Kaige. Based upon the novel by Lilian Lee, the film adaption was extremely popular, as it was one of the most well known works in the Fifth Generation films in Chinese cinema. The Fifth Generation Movement was a group of Chinese filmmakers who were known for boosting the popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. It is no surprise then, that Farewell My Concubine went on to the Academy Awards and received 3 foreign language film nominations, and is still also the only Chinese language film to be awarded the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Farewell My Concubine follows the lives of 2 men over a span of 53 years. It explores the beginning of their friendship, their breakthrough in the Beijing Opera, the Japanese Invasion in the 1930s and the Communist Party takeover in the late 1940s. 

The film introduces us to 2 men dressed in Opera clothing, the camera stays far away from them, as the story unfolds and the audience is given the first sighting of our protagonists. In this scene, viewers discover the two have not seen one another for over 10 years and have not performed together even longer. At this point, the film sends viewers into a flashback and to the beginning of our protagonist's stories. Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang) are both part of a Beijing Opera Training School. After many years of training and a lot of drama, the two succeed in becoming two of the most popular actors as the King and the Concubine in the Peking Opera. 

As the two boys have now grown into men, the film explores their relationship with not only each other, but others as well. It is quite obvious that Dieyi is in love with Xiaolou, however, he takes a fancy for a prostitute, Juxian, played by the ever so popular, Gong Li (Raise The Red Lantern, Memoirs of a Geisha). From then on, the film tests the relationship of the three as the Japanese invasion occurs. As Opera stars, the show must go on, but things from this time come back to the haunt the characters when China is taken over by the communist party years later. 

Farewell My Concubine is extremely heartbreaking all the way through. With a running time of almost 3 hours, this film may be a bit too much for some, but with all the historical background seeping into the storyline, I found this film to be very interesting from beginning to end. It was also very clever how the story paralleled the play that is seen throughout the movie. This is a film that I think ever movie enthusiast MUST watch. There is a reason it won such an honored award. The film is currently streaming on Netflix and Youtube. 

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 What is your favorite Fifth Generation Film from China? Let us know in the comments below!
 If you liked this review, make sure to check out our other review on Raise the Red Lantern.

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❥W