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‘Farewell My Concubine’

By Desson Howe
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 29, 1993
 


Director:
Chen Kaige
Cast:
Leslie Cheung;
Zhang Fengyi;
Gong Li
R
Under 17 restricted

Lavish, splendorous. ornate -- these and other overdressed adjectives belong to "Farewell My Concubine," the Chinese movie that took the top prize at Cannes this year. (Actually, it shared the honor with Jane Campion's "The Piano.") A lengthy costume spectacle about two Peking Opera stars, it's also a political melodrama, an updated fable about unconditional love; and with its coyly veiled homosexual themes, a tweaking test for the freedom-phobic Beijing regime.

"Concubine" starts out at full epic tilt and never quits. As boyhood friends and stage collaborators Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi become famous for a dual showpiece called "Farewell My Concubine," their stage act starts to mirror their personal life.

In the stage story, a concubine (performed by female-impersonating, falsetto-voiced Cheung) commits sympathetic suicide when her master (Zhang) endures military defeat. Petty jealousies -- mostly from Cheung -- start to bleed into the friends' offstage life, particularly when Zhang marries high-class prostitute Gong Li (best known as director Zhang Yimou's leading lady). As the friends weather a protracted, complicated relationship, they undergo 50 years of political events, including the Japanese occupation, the rise of the Communists and the Cultural Revolution. Director Chen Kaige, a prominent member of the renowned "Fifth Generation" filmmakers, bedecks his project with so much episodic detail, the weight is almost oppressive. There would be nothing wrong with such over-achievement if it yielded equal narrative bounties.

The first half, however, commands attention like a thunderous gong. The boys' arduous apprenticeship (starting in the 1920s) at the All Luck and Happiness Academy is astounding for its scenes of relentless brutality. Young Douzi (Cheung's boyhood role played by Ma Mingwei) is led into the school by his prostitute-mother. But he is rejected for having a sixth finger on one hand. In the kind of bizarre singlemindedness that characterizes this dire world, his mother hacks off the offending digit and brings him back. His training begins.

This institution is run by a burly taskmaster (Lu Qi), who trains young boys to be perfect automatons, little masters of acrobatics, choreography, physical endurance and song memory. Those who make even slight mistakes are beaten and humiliated until they achieve perfection. Because of his effeminate mien, the little boy is trained for female roles, while his newfound companion Shitou (Fei Yang as Zhang's childhood counterpart) takes the manlier parts. They grow up together and, playing stage concubine and king, become the toast of Peking.

The remainder of the story -- and what a huge remainder it is -- takes them through to 1977. There are many chapters in this novel-like meandering. Cheung's enmity for Zhang causes a split. But when Zhang is imprisoned by the Japanese, Gong Li persuades petulant Cheung to use his good influence with the occupiers to free him.

There's a troubled, ultimately treacherous affair between Cheung and older patron Ge You. There's also an eventual reunion between the estranged stage partners brought about by their aging mentor. But long before these events, "Concubine" has lost purpose; or worse, it has continued its purpose for too long. Like Cheung's ethereally plaintive voice, the movie is a siren song that's appealing at first, but held too long. It becomes an increasing whine.

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (R) -- In Mandarin Chinese with subtitles.

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