FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (1993)

(aka Ba wang bie ji)

Directed by: Chen Kaige

Screenplay by: Bik-Wa Lei, Wei Lu

Cast: Gong Li, Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Qi Lu, Da Ying, You Ge

The opening 30 minutes or so of Concubine, which take place in a Dickensian opera training school for boys, are flat-out mesmerizing--full of strange sounds and visuals. Otherwise, this Chen Kaige melodrama tracing the triangular friendship between two boyhood friends who grow up to be celebrated performers of Chinese opera--one gay and the other straight--and the prostitute who becomes the straight boy's wife is plodding, dramatically tepid (though, "juvenille" might be a more apt description) and only occasionally interesting. The movie is overlong by a good 45 minutes if not more--the drama is cheesy, simplistic and too stodgy in its presentation to really hold up to its historic framing and epic sweep. Still, there's a lot about 20th-century Chinese history of which I'm ignorant--including the centrality of Beijing opera in traditional Chinese culture--and Kaige's movie provides a very baroque and sumptuous window on 50-plus years of turbulent political events, serving as a backdrop to a rather overcooked story unfolding in the foreground. Still, some beautiful images and Gong Li's fantastic performance make at least portions of it worthwhile.

Runtime: 171 min.

Jay Antani © 2006 Perihelion Journal