FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
[Spoilers]
A film review by Raymond Maihin Chowkwanyun
Copyright 1994 Raymond Maihin Chowkwanyun
Probably this movie has already been reviewed. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to write my own because this movie made such a big impact with me. I believe it to be one of the all-time greats. Right up there with the best of Bergman, Wells, Kurosawa, Fellini, Ray, etc. This is movie making at its most powerful, fully realizing the potential of the medium.
In one of the early scenes, a young boy's finger is cut off by his mother. Like the opening salvo of UN CHIEN ANDALOU, this merely serves as a prelude to what is to come. This is a harrowing movie and the steady crescendo of harrowing is relentlessly harrowing.
The young boy subjected to the ad hoc street surgery is Douzi, son of a prostitute. He has grown too big to keep around the brothel so his mother decides to put him into a Beijing Opera company. There's just one snag: he has an extra finger on his hand. You know the rest. Talk about a tough job interview!
But I get ahead of myself. Before the finger chopping exercise, Douzi is led by his mother through the streets of Beijing where they come upon the Opera company that is to be his life, performing in the street. The pace and timing of this early sequence puts us on notice that we are in the presence of a major new force in film. The director seamlessly intercuts frenetic action, as the Opera troupe dances around, with a sudden still close-up of Shitou, who is to become Douzi's lifelong acting partner and lover. The montage is flawless but it is never technique for its own sake. It is always in the service of telling the story.
When some street thugs challenge the Opera troupe's leader, Shitou saves the day by crushing a brick against his head. (The leader of the thugs finds this amusing and lets them go). Later, we are startled to see the Opera troupe leader beat the living daylights out of Shitou as punishment for pulling his old "brick" trick. Never mind that it saved their skins. Most of the early going in the movie is consumed by beatings. Myself, I felt the director carried this to the edge of intolerability without quite going over it but I'm sure some of you will feel it's too over the top.
But I get ahead of myself, again. In the very opening sequence, Douzi and Shitou enter a theatre dressed in full Beijing Opera regalia. These outfits are of a flamboyance that would make Elton John in his prime say, "Whoa. Hold on a minute." Shitou is dressed as a king in a bright yellow costume. You've heard of shocking pink? This is shocking yellow. There seems to be about half a dozen flags tied to his back and the topper is black and white makeup that completely obscures his face.
Douzi is made up like your average royal concubine. The actors who portray Douzi in youth and adulthood (I forget the actors' name for them in youth, but they are portrayed by Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi in adulthood) are extraordinary. When made up, they completely look and behave like women, especially the adult actor. It is another of the remarkable aspects of this movie that they were able to find a boy and man who resemble each other sufficiently that you could believe the boy grew up to be the man. These two performances are truly the standouts in a movie full of standout performances.
Back to the opening scene: it is 1977 and Shitou and Douzi have not seen each other for eleven years. This point is the basis for some banter between the two. Shitou tells an off-stage official that he hasn't seen Douzi for ten years to which Douzi immediately snips, "No, it's been eleven." I mean, just like a married couple of many years. And then the movie launches into the tumultuous story of those years.
The movie covers that most interesting time in China's history that begins with the warlord period, followed by the Japanese occupation (short history lesson: the occupation started before WWII with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931), followed by the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai Shek, followed by the Communist regime of Mao Tse Tung.
The movie's narrative can be neatly divided into several stages: 1) Shitou and Douzi learn to become Opera stars, 2) Shitou becomes involved with and eventually marries Juxian (played by Gong Li), causing a virulently jealous reaction from Douzi, 3) Shitou gets into trouble with the Japanese forces of occupation and is bailed out by Douzi's operatic skills (who gets spat on for his pains by Shitou in a fit of macho ultra-patriotism), 4) they both get into trouble with the Nationalists because Douzi performed for the Japanese and, inevitably, and 5) they both get into trouble with the Communists for performing for both the Japanese and the Nationalists. Sometimes, you can't win for losing.
At the center of the movie is the Beijing Opera. I found the Opera sequences fascinating enough that I intend to seek out some Opera videos. However, you may find yourself wishing you were elsewhere during these sequences, most of which are dominated by Douzi's singing and he sings in a piercing falsetto. The traditional Chinese orchestra also sounds nothing like Western music. For me, the outlandish costumes, the music, and the singing all combined into a powerful artistic experience. Where can you go nowadays to find true Opera performances like this?
I find it interesting that Bejing Opera, of all things, should pop up in both of the Chinese movies I have been able to see. In RAISE THE RED LANTERN, the third wife is an ex-Opera star and gets to display her, also piercing, singing talents. What is it, I wonder, that these young filmmakers find so fascinating about Beijing Opera? They are too young to have experienced the wild craze for Opera that flourished during the period between the wars. It must represent something powerful, and I suspect subversive to them. (I thought Raise the Red Lantern was slo-o-o-w and boring--big disappointment).
At the center of the Beijing Opera is *the* opera, "Farewell my Concubine." Shitou plays the character of the Shang King. Douzi plays the role of his faithful concubine who stays with him to the end even after he is defeated by the Han King (the ancestors of present-day chinese). Odd, isn't it to center a play around your defeated enemy? It would be like the U.S. having a play lauding King George III or the English putting Napoleon on top of Nelson's column or the French awarding first prize at Cannes to JURASSIC PARK. I know, international jury, but still, point, what? Eventually, the concubine commits suicide rather than fall into the hands of the king's enemies--a final and ultimate gesture of loyalty. Let's just say Douzi gets into this role a bit too much for his own good.
The real reason to see this movie is the rich cast of characters, all three-dimensional. Besides the triangle at stage center there is the Beijing Opera troupe leader and teacher of Douzi and Shitou. A complete autocrat with a leonine mane of white hair, he rules the troupe with an iron hand. The assistant teacher who deals out whacks of the hand equally for getting lessons both wrong *and* right. The latter so the students will remember to do it right again the next time. The disgustingly degenerate ex-Imperial eunuch Shang (?) who re-appears later as a penniless, mindless street vendor. The "king" of Beijing Opera who seduces Douzi with a gift of Shang's sword which he purchased at the eunuch's bankruptcy auction. This king has an almost painfully over-developed artistic sensibility. He is later pilloried and executed by the Communists.
The theatre manager who first spots Douzi's talent. Asked to recite a famous poem, Douzi gets it wrong. He keeps saying "I have the spirit of a boy" instead of "I have the spirit of a girl." The theatre manager loses interest and the whole troupe is about to lose its big break. Infuriated, Shitou washes Douzi's mouth out with a pipe, until it bleeds. Impressed (shocked?) by this display, the theatre manager is persuaded to give them a second look. This time, Douzi gets the poem right and their look. This time, Douzi gets the poem right and their career is launched. From this moment onwards, Douzi assumes his feminine persona. This theatre manager brings to mind the description: he oiled around the corridors. You probably have one in your company.
Then, there is Douzi's adopted son whom he rescues from being left to die of exposure in the streets. This son becomes his student and later usurps his place in the Opera. And finally, as a red guard, presides over the trial of Douzi and Shitou. Oh, how sharper than a serpent's tooth....
The glory of this movie is the way the director is able to intertwine so many subplots and characters and historical and personal themes without ever once dropping one of the many threads he introduces. It all comes together. There is not a wasted sequence. There are no loose ends or subplots that go nowhere. Every scene and twist in the story has a point. It's been a long time since I can remember a movie so richly sub-plotted and with such a kaleidescope of characters.
One example: in Opera school, Douzi runs away with a friend who craves candied crab apples more than anything in the world. After seeing the troupe perform, Douzi realizes the Opera and Shitou are his life and he returns to, you guessed it, a damned good thrashing. This time from the flat of a large and formidable looking sword. Rather than endure the punishment, Douzi's fellow-truant commits suicide. Later, at the height of his career, Douzi is preening himself and about to enter the theatre when he hears the voice of a street vendor shouting, "Candied crab apples." All the smug self-confidence immediately drains from his face.
Extracurricular Activities: --------------------------
This movie was made at considerable personal risk to the participants. The newspapers have been full of reports about how this movie was first banned by Beijing, then re-released when it won a foreign prize (Cannes? Venice?), then re-banned. I would guess the authorities liked the movie up until the Liberation of Beijing by the Communists. If the movie had cut out the Red Guards scene near the end, I think Beijing would have blessed this movie. Because it shows how corrupt and rotten Chinese society had become during 20's, 30's, and 40's, i.e., good reason for the Communists to take over and reform society.
None of this would amount to a hill of beans, if this weren't a great movie. But enjoying the movie as I did, and knowing the conditions it was made under, just gives the film an extra dimension. I really admire the guts of the filmmaker and the actors (even the about-to-be-put-upon Juxian).
Minor Cavils: ------------
1) I have never liked fade-to-black as a technique for splitting scenes. This movie does nothing to convince me otherwise.
2) The scene in the brothel where Juxian leaps from an upper story into Shitou's arms rings false. The cutting is just too crude so that the sequence looks like (1) Juxian jumps from a safe height. (2) Cut to Juxian arriving in Shitou's arms. To be convincing, such a scene has to show the full jump from start to finish. Imagine if the cliff-jumping scene from BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID had only shown Redford and Newman taking off, cut to them entering the water without the bit in between. Done the way it was, it's a classic movie moment. Cutting out the middle bit would drain all the emotional impact.
3) Juxian doesn't age from the time we first encounter her in the mid-1930's to the mid-1960's. I know we're supposed to suspend our sense of reality but this is a bit much.
4) It seems I'm being hard on Juxian but I found her to be a bit on the expressionless side as in ice princess. However, there is a touching scene where she nurses Douzi during his withdrawal from opium addiction. That's what I liked about this movie. The characters do surprising things that are completely believable (thank you Roger Ebert for that critiquing criteria).
Douzi and Juxian are immediately set up for conflict over Shitou but she finds it in her heart to nurse Douzi. It's surprising because if the characters had been cardboard cutouts, the conflict would have been maintained. Later, we are surprised again when Douzi rejects Juxian's gesture of pity after Douzi is usurped from the Opera by his adopted son. And again, when Douzi viciously turns on Juxian and accuses her of being a prostitute to the Red Guards. This prompts Shitou to disavow her and prompts her to commit suicide.
4) There were some scenes of Douzi wandering by a lily-filled lake that I thought were superfluous without actually damaging the flow of the movie. Others might find it a nice interlude in an otherwise (did I mention this?) harrowing movie.
Parallels to Other Great Movies: -------------------------------
The structure of the movie is a classic recollection, with the sequences in the present time (present being 1977) serving as convenient bookends for the lives of the characters. Of course, many movies use this structure but the one that pops to my mind is CITIZEN KANE. The phrase "Why does the concubine have to die?" serves the same plot function as "Rosebud" in CITIZEN KANE. It's full of loaded double and triple entendres within the context of the movie.
Another obvious parallel is LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS. In real life, this movie was also made under difficult conditions (occupied France during World War II). LES ENFANTS also centers around the theatre and the off-stage lives of the actors. However, LES ENFANTS lacks the historical subtext of FAREWELL. (This does not in any way diminish Les Enfants, of course. When movies rise to these exalted heights, differences are cause for celebration not to put one down over another).
-- ray
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