Desires of a "Concubine" (Film Review)

Sometimes I re-watch certain movies, often because of the universality of the theme. Such is the case with "Farewell My Concubine" (1992, Chinese with English subtitles, 171 minutes). Do not let the length of the movie, or that it is in Chinese, daunt you. The film is worth several bags of popcorn (and you know how much they cost these days in the theater!), and more.

The story reminds me--to a degree--of a flip side to "Brokeback Mountain," that great film by Ang Lee that won him an Oscar for best director. If "Brokeback" is about overtly challenging the archetype of the American cowboy, demythologizing them as overly masculine, "Farewell" is about embracing the conventional understanding of Chinese gays as effeminate. Yet "Farewell," directed by avart garde director Chen Kaige, is hardly an endorsement of gay stereotypes.

Against the entire turbulent sweep of Chinese history, from the bloody era of warlords of the 1920s through the equally tragic Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, "Farewell" pivots around the male relationship between two Beijing Opera actors--Douzi (played by the late Hong Kong pop star, Leslie Cheung) and Shitou (played by mainlander Zhang Fengyi). Their complex friendship begins during boyhood at the grueling Beijing opera training school. Douzi is forced, against his will, to train to play female roles (in those days, all Chinese female operatic roles were played by men). Shitou, in contrast, trained to play male roles.

Years later, the boys have matured into accomplished actors, who each has earned stellar reviews from their adoring fans. But in private, the men have an uneasy relationship. Douzi, the effeminate one, has fallen in love with Shitou, but the latter does not return his affections. In fact, Shitou is a well-known womanizer, though one with strong brotherly affections for Douzi.

Soon Shitou's carousing catches up with him. A prostitute, Juixian (Gong Li), at a local brothel, claims that Shitou, during one of his visits to the establishment, has proposed to her, and now demands that he honors his promise.

Soon marriage arrives for Shitou. And thus trouble arrives too. Douzi, enraged by the turn of events, begins a tussle with Juixian for the affections of Shitou. Does Douzi get his way? How can he prove his undying "brotherhood" to Shitou? Will he betray his country, even his profession, so as to save Shitou from the march of history? Will unrequited love triumph over self-interests? Or will survival of the fittest overcome honor and friendship?

Never has a Chinese film been so ambitious in its scope. The backdrop of its turbulent history is more than just window dressing. It is the necessary setting for this probing look into how the line between public and private, between policy and creativity, between duty and desire, becomes blurred. Along the way, we realize that personal identity--the self--is made of many overlapping layers. Homosexuality is just simply one of them.

The film won multiple awards, include the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars.

Postscript: Leslie Cheung, who plays Douzi, committed suicide in 2003. By then an openly gay singer-cum-actor, Leung had been suffering from depression. Look for eerie parallels between Cheung and his alter ego in this film.