With stunning set pieces and the dramatic backdrop of the revolution, Kaige captures perfectly the relationship between the two boys.
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 29
Rotten:4
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Consensus: Chen Kaing's epic is grand in scope and presentation, and, bolstered by solid performances, the result is a film both horrifying and enthralling.
Runtime: 2 hrs 37 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: In Chen Kaige's adaptation of the Lilian Lee novel, Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang) grow up enduring the harsh training of the Peking Opera Academy, where instructors... In Chen Kaige's adaptation of the Lilian Lee novel, Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang) grow up enduring the harsh training of the Peking Opera Academy, where instructors regularly beat the children as a means of instilling in them the discipline needed to master the complex physical and vocal technique. As the two boys mature, they develop complementary talents: Dieyi, with his fine, delicate features, assumes the female roles while the burlier Xiaolou plays masculine warlords. Their dramatic identities become real for Dieyi when he falls in love with Xiaolou; the resolutely heterosexual Xiaolou, however, marries a courtesan, Juxian (Gong Li), creating a dangerous, jealousy-filled romantic triangle. Spanning 50 years from the early part of the 20th century to the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, Kaige's passionate, exquisitely shot film captures the vast historical scope of a changing world (and the mesmerizing pageantry of the opera) while also providing the intimate and touching details of a unique, tender, heartrending love story. [More]
Starring: Gong Li, Leslie Cheung
Starring: Gong Li, Leslie Cheung
Director: Chen Kaige
Director: Chen Kaige
Screenwriter: Lilian Lee
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Reviews for Farewell My Concubine
The scenes in the Peking Opera School, where boys are caned for doing wrong or right, are no less horrifying than the later tableaus of public humiliation at the hands of the Maoists.
Chen's remarkable movie uses an unusual love triangle to telescope more than 50 years of tumultuous Chinese history.
the drama is cheesy, simplistic and too stodgy in its presentation to really hold up to its historic framing and epic sweep
Visually impressive and emotionally complex, this historical epic, winner of the Cannes Festival Palme d'Or, relates the tumultuous history of China through the story of two friends who meet as children and become stars of the Peking Opera.
Appropriately operatic, Chen's visually spectacular epic is sumptuous in every respect. Intelligent, enthralling, rhapsodic.
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