Adieu ma concubine

I've seen this movie more times than I can count and I cry every time. I first saw it in the theater in 1993 and I was rooting for it to win Best Foreign Film Oscar, but it lost to the far inferior Belle Epoque (Spain). As to the person who wrote that this film made Cheng Dieyi seem like he was made to be gay because of abuse, I think you need to take another look. To my mind, Dieyi seemed to be infatuated with Shitzou as soon as he got there. However you look at it, this is a film that has great performances all around. I especially loved Leslie Cheung as the adult Cheng Dieyi (requiem eternem Leslie, 1956-2003), not to mention Gong Li. An excellent film, but be forewarned: it's almost three hours long. 10/10

This is, without the doubt, the very best of Chinese film making, acting and story telling. I didn't watch this movie only until last year, and there are no words were powerful enough to express my feelings. The acting were flawless, and the emotion in the entire film were so real and strong, you'll feel so attached the whole time. Leslie is the one and only actor who can fully deliver the role of ChengDieYi, and his work in this film is remarkable. A true milestone performance of his career and film acting. The story, The history, The culture, The acting!!!

A must see film!!!

As an WASP American married a lady from Mainland China, I have a great interest in and curiosity about China. My wife's mother and father actually saw these men perform. I have discussed this movie with many Chinese friends, most of whom saw it before coming to this country. Some of them knew the story from real life as well as the movie. They are quick to point out the accuracy of the story in its detailing of Chinese history from the end of the last dynasty until its end during the Cultural Revolution. They also claim that the major happenings in the movie are real events, not the norm for most of Hollywood's "real life" stories. One point of conjecture in the movie is the sexually of Dieyi. It is presumed he is/becomes a homosexual. However, from what I have learned about the Peking/BeiJing Opera through reading and discussions, it is more likely that Dieyi was virtually unaware of his own sexuality. As opposed to being a hetero or homosexual, he was asexual in a way like it had be surgically removed from his being. It had been taken from him through the rigors of his training and years of performance. His love for Xiaolou is powerful, maybe even surpassing ordinary man/woman love, but platonic in as much as his mind is devoid of its sexuality. He suffers the same jealous anger and sense of betrayal as might be found when a wife discovers the cheatings of her husband, and reacts, unfortunately, accordingly (Heroin). His real, enduring love is performing. It is the one constant that has seen him through. He throws himself into it, being willing to perform for anyone, even as it drives the story to the end. The end of the movie is not satisfying to everyone. It was not a Hollywood ending. However, it was reality.

The film paints the story of two actors, from their first encounter at school in the Twenties through their success as stars of the Peking Opera, difficulties during the Japanese occupation, the Communist takeover in 1949 and the traumas of the Cultural Revolution in the Sixties…

For the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, the film touches new ground on two fronts… In the first place, though it does not avoid from acknowledging the sufferings under the old regime, it takes an embittered view of Communist society and of the Cultural Revolution specifically…

The two friends, Xiaolou and Dieyi, adopt a young man, Xiao Si, who becomes one of the Red Guards and quickly informs the political sins of his benefactors…

Second the film is a love story of a rare kind… Dieyi is a homosexual and suffers rejection when Xiaolou begins an affair with Juxian (Gong Li), a gorgeous prostitute… The personal conflict of each character is the heart of this exceptional movie

A masterpiece in every sense of the word, Chen Kaige's breath-stealing parable of China's multi-layered political revolution, is centred on two men. Chen presents us with an absorbing story of a 52 year-old relationship between two opera actors mounted upon an impossibly large canvas. But without sacrificing any intricate plot development or smudging over any delicate complexity in the relationship.

Considered by many to be one of the greatest epics of all time, this film rightly established Chen's reputation as one of the most brilliant narrative and artistic directors of our time, along with other such contemporary auteurs as Kieslowski, Bertolucci and Kurosawa.

You can not call yourself a film-buff if you haven't seen this movie. And film-students: you can witness the true art of filmmaking and story telling through the skilled hands of Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine.