"Farewell My Concubine" (1993)

(Originally released as Ba Wang Bie Ji)

Starring: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, Qi Lu, Da Ying, You Ge, Chun Li, Han Lei

First, the Lowdown: Two actors find their lives intertwined both on an off stage.

A little background here: Farewell My Concubine is the name of a famous Chinese tragic opera that’s a combination of Les Miserables and Richard III. Xiang Yu, the ancient Chu overlord, is at war to unify all of China. His enemy, Liu Bang, has him surrounded on all sides. Sensing defeat, Xiang Yu orders his horse and his concubine to leave his side so that they may save themselves. But neither one obeys him and when Xiang Yu’s back is turned, his concubine uses his sword to kill herself.

Winter, the mid-1920s: a Beijing prostitute pleads with the head of an opera troupe to take her son in. Initially refusing because of the child’s extra finger, they accept him in when the woman cuts it off. Frightened and confused, the boy, Douzi, finds himself under the protective arm of one the troupe’s more charismatic members, Shitou. Because the Chinese dramatic arts do not allow women to perform on stage, the effeminate Douzi is taught as a female lead, whereas the athletic Shitou is cast in male roles. As the years progress, the pair impress the director of the prestigious Beijing Opera company with their performance of Farewell My Concubine.

Fifteen years later, Douzi has taken the name Dieyi Cheng and Shitou is now called Xiaolou Duan. Both are extremely popular on stage and well renowned throughout the town for their performance of Farewell My Concubine. However, where Xiaolou enjoys the fame and money of acting, Dieyi finds him identifying with his female roles almost too well. So when Xiaolou woos a prostitute and they wed, Dieyi sees it as a threat to his love of Xiaolou. And as the years would promise, that would be the least of their worries.

Farewell My Concubine has been praised as a politically-charged drama about the history of China in the 20th century. Originally enough, it portrays the fall of the Chinese Imperial rule, the subsequent occupation by the Japanese, the Communist revolution, and ultimately Mao Tse-Tong’s insane “Cultural Revolution” through the eyes of the least political members of society.

Line of the movie: “Has he not truly blurred the line between stage and male and female?”

Four and a half stars. Clap your hands, stomp your feet.