Farewell My Concubine (film)

Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese-Hong Kong epic historical drama film directed by Chen Kaige, starring Leslie Cheung, Gong Li and Zhang Fengyi. Adapted for the screen by Lu Wei, based on the novel by Lilian Lee, the film is set in politically tumultuous 20th-century China, from the early days of the Republic of China to the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. It chronicles the troubled relationships between two lifelong friends, the Peking opera actors Cheng Dieyi (Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Zhang), and Xiaolou's wife Juxian (Gong).
The film's themes include identity confusion and blurred lines between real life and the stage, portrayed by the revered opera actor Dieyi, whose unrequited love for Xiaolou persists throughout. The film also addressed themes of political and societal disturbances in 20th-century China, which is typical of Chinese Fifth Generation cinema.
Farewell My Concubine premiered on 1 January 1993, in Hong Kong. Upon release the film received generally positive reviews from contemporary critics, and jointly won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Chinese-language film to achieve the honour. It won further accolades, including a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and a BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, and received two nominations at the 66th Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film.
A few weeks after its release in China, the politburo demanded changes to be made to the film due to unconventional depictions of traditional values and political decisions. While allowing a premiere in Beijing, the government objected to the representation of homosexuality, the suicide of a leading character, and a depiction of the turmoil of the 1960s.
The film was approved for further exhibition in September 1993, less than a year after its original release. Upon its re-release it became clear the Chinese censors had made numerous cuts, removing 14 minutes. Chinese officials felt that a re-release, as opposed to maintaining a full ban, would silence an ever-growing international backlash and also help their bid to host the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2000.
Farewell My Concubine is considered one of the landmark films of the Fifth Generation movement that brought Chinese film directors to world attention. In 2005, the film was selected as one of the "100 Best Films in Global History" by Time magazine.
A young boy, Douzi, is abandoned by his prostitute mother to a Peking opera troupe supervised by Master Guan. There, Douzi befriends another boy about his age, Shitou.
A teenage Douzi is trained to play dan (female heroine roles), while Shitou learns jing (male hero roles). When practicing the play Dreaming of the World Outside the Nunnery, Douzi misstates the line "I am by nature a girl, not a boy" with "I am by nature a boy, not a girl," for which he receives severe physical punishment. Douzi and 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 potential actors. When Douzi repeats the same mistake in front of the agent, Shitou commands him to start over. Douzi finally delivers the entire monologue successfully 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. Shitou implicitly knows what happened although Douzi does not speak of the assault. On their way home, Douzi rescues an abandoned baby, who later comes under Master Guan's training.
Years later, Douzi and Shitou have become Peking opera stars, taking the names Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, respectively. Their signature performance is the play Farewell My Concubine, where Cheng Dieyi plays Consort Yu and Duan Xiaolou plays the hero Xiang Yu. Their fame attracts the attention of Yuan Shiqing, a reputable person who attends their performances. Yuan Shiqing has come to possess the sword which was once in Eunuch Zhang's house and gifts the sword to Dieyi. The adult Cheng Dieyi is in love with Duan Xiaolou; 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. During a break, Xiaolou begins reciting the line "I am by nature a boy," to which Dieyi makes the same mistake of finishing with "I am not a girl." The film ends with both of them finishing the rehearsal, but Dieyi takes Xiaolou's sword and cuts his own throat, paralleling the concubine's final act in the opera.
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 together recruited Chinese writer Lu Wei for the screenplay, and in 1991, he completed the first draft of the screenplay. The director chose the heroic suicide of Dieyi over the original story's banality in order to present the "Lie nu" image of Dieyi and to accentuate women's liberation which was a big theme in Fifth Generation films.
Jackie Chan was originally considered for the role of Cheng Dieyi, but he declined the offer. John Lone later lobbied for the role but failed to progress past contractual negotiations with producer Hsu Feng.
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. Due to Gong Li's international stardom, she was cast as one of the main characters in the film.
The historical background of the film is multi-layered and complicated, which contributes to the plot and the composition of the film. The 1990s saw the Chinese government trying to improve the country's image after controversial protests that involved students, workers, and foreign government agencies . David Shambaugh writes that the government's new agenda 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". In addition to the government's attempts at improving the country's image, by the time of the film's release, the atmosphere toward 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 in 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.
The film delves deeply into the psychological and emotional complexities of its central characters. Cheng Dieyi is shaped not only by the rigid and grueling training of the Peking Opera, but also by the societal and political forces of his time, which profoundly influence his identity as both an artist and a person. His role as the Concubine blurs the lines between performance and reality, leaving him unable to separate his true self from the character he plays. Roger Ebert noted that Dieyi was “essentially raised by the opera as a homosexual whether or not he consents,” highlighting the film’s exploration of identity as shaped by societal and cultural forces. Farewell My Concubine is both an epic historical drama and an intimate melodrama. Roger Ebert praised the film for its ambitious narrative, noting that it “helped him to feel and imagine what it was like to live in China during those times.” The film also examines the survival of traditional art forms like Peking Opera amidst political turmoil, with the Peking opera presenting as both a cultural foundation and a site of personal conflict. Director Chen Kaige’s personal experiences during the Cultural Revolution, including denouncing his father, informed his vision for the film, adding authenticity to its depiction of the era’s hardships.
The film premiered in Shanghai in July 1993 but was removed from theatres after two weeks for further censorial review, and was subsequently banned in August. Because the film won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, the ban was met with an international outcry. Feeling that there was "no choice" and fearing the ban hurt China's bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, officials allowed the film to resume public showings in September. This release was censored; scenes dealing with the Cultural Revolution (led by the Chinese Communist Party) and homosexuality were cut, and the final scene was revised to "soften the blow of the suicide".
The film was released to three theaters on 15 October 1993, and grossed $69,408 in its opening weekend. The film grossed $5,216,888 in the US.
In 2005, some 25,000 Hong Kong film fans voted it their favorite Chinese-language film of the century (the second was Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild).
The attractiveness of the film for international markets was raised by some critics who were concerned that the film's visual and artistic settings were too culturally specific. On the other hand, the film was internationally attractive. The rich political and cultural imagery is presented as a colorful east Asian tableaux that intrigues westererners. China's image is a key feature of the film, and the image of that cultural and political iconography is presented for an international audience. Thus, some critics charge the filmmakers with playing into stereotypes perpetuated about China.
Some critics point to the fact that Chen had created the film to fit domestic and international audiences' tastes, as Chen understands some of the international audience's perceptions and attitudes about Chinese history and sexuality.
At Cannes, the film was awarded the highest prize, the Palme d'Or. Miramax Films mogul Harvey Weinstein purchased distribution rights and removed fourteen minutes, resulting in a 157-minute cut. This is the version seen theatrically in the United States and United Kingdom.
According to Peter Biskind's book, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film, Louis Malle, Cannes jury president 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.
In the fall of 2023, distributor Film Movement released the 4K restoration of the film theatrically in celebration of its 30th anniversary. It was the first time the uncut version was released in North American theaters.
The Criterion Collection later announced a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray package for a July 2024 release.
Roger Ebert awarded the film four stars, praising the plot as "almost unbelievably ambitious" and executed with "freedom and energy". The New York Times critic Vincent Canby hailed it for "action, history, exotic color", positively reviewing the acting of Gong Li, Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi. In New York, David Denby criticized the "spectacle" but felt it would excel internationally, portraying a triumph of love and culture through the darkness. Hal Hinson, writing for The Washington Post, highlighted "its swooning infatuation with the theater- with its colors, its vitality and even its cruel rigors". Desson Howe for the same publication was less positive, writing that the first half had impact but gives way to "novel-like meandering", with less point, as the film reaches its conclusion.
The film was included in The New York Times's 2004 list of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made and Time's 2005 list of Best Movies of All Time. It was ranked No. 97 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010, and No. 1 in Time Out's "100 Best Mainland Chinese Films" feature in 2014. The film has a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The critics consensus reads, "Chen Kaing's epic is grand in scope and presentation, and, bolstered by solid performances, the result is a film both horrifying and enthralling." The BBC placed the film at number 12 on its 2018 list of the 100 greatest foreign language films. It ranked at number 55 on the Hong Kong Film Awards Association (HKFAA)'s list of the Best 100 Chinese-Language Motion Pictures in 2005. The public ranked Farewell My Concubine atop a 2005 poll of the most beloved films in Hong Kong conducted by Handerson ArtReach.
At the Cannes Film Festival, the film shared the Palme d'Or with Jane Campion's The Piano from New Zealand. Farewell My Concubine was the first, and as of 2023, remained the only, Chinese-language film to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes.