Farewell My Concubine

Summary: Chen Kaige directed the 1993 Chinese film, Farewell My Concubine that explores the 1950s of China’s political turmoil. Among the lives of families and different groups, the film focuses on two male actors in a Peking opera troupe who rose with fame and fell with the cultural reformation. In a nutshell, a prostitute leaves her son, Douzi, in a Chinese opera training school who later falls in love with Shitou, who took pity on him. After years of extremely difficult training, both males become great actors that perform in front of many audiences. Douzi plays the female lead with the stage name of Cheng Dieyi, while Shitou plays the male lead as Duan Xiaolou. Meanwhile, courtesan Juxian of the brothel House of Blossom manipulates Shitou to marry her and he later falls in love with her. When the cultural reformation occurred, many traditions such as the Peking opera were banned. Douzi and Shitou have a fall-out as a result of Shitou’s relationship with Juxian. Once the reformation closed, there is a scene, which shows that Douzi and Shitou practicing their play, but Douzi choose to truly suicide instead of scripting it.

Background of play: The play that Dieyi and Xiaolou perform reveals the transition from the Qin Dynasty to the rule of the Han Dynasty, which parallels the transition from the Republic of China into the People’s Republic of China. Additionally, Dieyi plays the role of Consort Yu who is devoted to Qin King, Xiang Yu, and also parallels this devotion by focusing it toward Xiaolou. During this period, males played all the roles of the characters, both male and female.

Analysis: interestingly, men played all acting roles while women were relegated to the female domain as housewives and mothers. It is only later that females were able to obtain roles in the Peking Opera. As Douzi is first placed into female roles, he is trained to say, “I am by nature a girl, not a boy,” but subconsciously refuses to say this and instead states, “I am by nature a boy.” However, once he comes to terms with his role and is lusted by an old eunuch, he wholeheartedly becomes his character and at one point Shitou comments that he has become Consort Yu. Towards the end of the film, Douzi reverts back to “I am by nature a boy” when he completes his last practice of the play. The element of homosexual love and the intersectionality with the role of his character is intermingled with Douzi’s identity. Douzi becomes so immersed into his role that the division between the world of his acting and reality is indistinct. Whether he is performing to the role or truly feeling his sexual orientation is unknown if following the director’s technique with the aforementioned line. Therefore, there is ambivalence with Douzi’s identity. Did he identify as Consort Yu and her feminine feelings or did he truly fall in love with his best friend, Shitou.

Chen, Kaige. "Farewell My Concubine (1993) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

Berardinelli, James. "Review: Farewell My Concubine." Reelviews Movie Reviews. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

"The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema | 97. Farewell My Concubine | Empire | Www.empireonline.com." Empire Magazine | Film Reviews, Movie News and Interviews. Empire Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.