FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Suffering for one's art is the theme of
this film from three cooperating Chinese countries. The
story follows two Beijing Opera singers over a half century.
They suffer to learn their art and then each political change
in China brings new suffering. This is a film that is well
made but which has limited capacity to be enjoyed. Rating: 0
(-4 to +4).
How much misery can anyone give to their art is the question asked by FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE. It is the story of a poor boy, the son of a prostitute, who becomes a popular opera star, and of what is required of him. Douzi is groomed for only one role, the loyal concubine of a defeated king who kills herself rather than desert her lover and master. Learning any role requires an incredible regimen of punishing physical training and potentially lethal beatings from the sadistic perfectionist schoolmaster. Douzi's training entails an even worse aspect--to better play a woman he has to offstage and on renounce his gender entirely and think of himself as a woman for the rest of his life. He is paired to go through life with Shitou, the actor groomed for the role of the king. Once they achieve greatness Douzi's problems are still only beginning. Shitou decides to take a wife of his own, an act of chivalry toward a prostitute. But the pairing now turns into a triangle. Douzi is forced to take lovers, but only male ones.
Just when this lifestyle looks like it cannot get worse, the Japanese invade China. This brings a new set of hardships, and yet another set of hardships come along when the Nationalists regain China, the Communists bring yet another bad turn that only gets worse with the Cultural Revolution. The film reminds one of a Dickens story except that things do not get better with time. The overall theme seems to be that when you are a man slotted for the Beijing Opera to play a woman in a single role for your whole life, that life is really a bitch and then you die.
It is hard to imagine a much more nihilist film. Every good deed that one of our two characters performs results in all the more misery for them or others. If you are Chinese it is quite possible that there is a perceivable nobility in all the pain, but--and I say this as someone who has seen or heard several Beijing operas--it is very hard for a Westerner tp appreciate the aesthetics of this art form. Even without that there will be some aspects of story that a Westerner will find hard to understand.
At 170 minutes FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE is a difficult film to watch particularly with its relentlessly downbeat theme. There have been several films this year with Chinese themes and this one is harder to recommend than most. With my limited understanding of Chinese culture I would rate this film a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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