Intrigue

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.

"Farewell, My Concubine" is a movie with two parallel, intertwined stories. It is the story of two performers in the Beijing Opera, stage brothers, and the woman who comes between them. At the same time, it attempts to do no less than squeeze the entire political history of China in the twentieth century into a three-hour timeframe.—Michael Kim <leda@imsa.edu>

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. In time they form a operatic duo and become famous and revered as top-class performers. However, their act and, ultimately, their friendship is tested by changes China endures over the next few decades, in particular the Japanese invasion and occupation, the communist takeover and Mao's Cultural Revolution. In 1990 they are reunited and perform their act for the first time in many years.—grantss

In 1924 China, prostitute Yanhong sees no other alternative than leaving her shy son Douzi behind at a training school for Chinese opera. Shitou, an older boy, takes pity on Douzi and he needs it because Master Guan rules his school with an iron fist. The boys are beaten, tortured for forgetting their lines, and so mentally taxed that suicide sometimes is the only option left. Douzi and Shitou become friends and are talented, destined to be great actors, they impress audiences by performing together. Douzi wants more from the friendship, but Shitou doesn't answer his advances. The situation becomes worse when courtesan Juxian manipulates Shitou into rescuing her from the brothel House of Blossoms and marrying her. Through the years, with the political situation in China ever changing and not always for the good, Shitou and Douzi remain close, but will it ever be like old times?—Arnoud Tiele (imdb@tiele.nl)