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"Farewell, My Concubine (Widescreen) "
 
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"Farewell, My Concubine (Widescreen) "

Leslie Cheung (Actor), Fengyi Zhang (Actor), Kaige Chen (Director) | Rated: R (Restricted) | Format: DVD
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

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The panorama of 20th-century Chinese history swirls past two men, celebrated actors with their own decidedly specialized view of things. We first observe their lives as children at the Peking Opera training school, a brutal and demanding arena for future actors. While still in training, the effeminate Douzi is chosen to play the transvestite role and the masculine Shitou is chosen to play the royal role in a ritualized play about a king and a concubine. The actors are so good at this performance that they become identified with these roles for their entire careers; through World War II, through the takeover by the Communists, through the insanity of the Cultural Revolution, they are known for their famous parts. Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi are powerful as the two men, and Gong Li (the beautiful leading lady of Raise the Red Lantern) plays the wife of the latter. The movie may be stronger on good old-fashioned melodrama than on profound conclusions, but boy, does it fill up the eyes. The director is Chen Kaige, one of the most talented members of China's "Fifth Generation" of filmmakers, whose daring subject matter (and sometimes bald international ambitions) have often irked the Chinese government. Indeed, though Farewell My Concubine shared the top prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and snagged two Oscar nominations, it had difficulty gaining official approval from China. --Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

47 Reviews
5 star:
 (33)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A fallen chinese super star......, April 1 2003
This review is from: "Farewell, My Concubine (Widescreen) " (DVD)
Leslie Cheung was suicided(brodie) at 2003/4/1 18:45 in MANDARIN ORCHARD HOTEL,Hong-Kong(This is not an april fool joking).

Aged 46.

Farewell Leslie!!

Farewell My Concubine is one of the Leslie's masterpiece.

If you like Leslie,this is one of the must have list!!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was expecting at all and that's good..., Jun 16 2003
By 
Freth (Delaware, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: "Farewell, My Concubine (Widescreen) " (DVD)
Wow. What a different movie. It's nothing like what I was expecting. That doesn't mean it's a bad film. It's just different than any other HK film I've ever seen. I think it breaks new ground and explores how childhood experiences can directly influence adulthood. A boy falls in love with an opera story and tries to live it in real life--and starts to have homosexual tendencies because he plays the female character. His opera co-star doesn't feel the same and falls in love with a prostitute whom he marries---the result is a love triangle of sorts that ends in tragedy. Not to mention powerful men that fall in love with the male-playing-female because he acts the part of a woman so well. Just watch it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Piece of Art, Mar 2 2003
This review is from: "Farewell, My Concubine (Widescreen) " (DVD)
This film is my favorite of all time! It deserves every award that it received. This is a film that truly classifies as art, and will go down in history as one of the great classics of film. While it is true that the childhood scenes are difficult to watch, the filmmakers were merely accurately portraying the treatment of the child opera stars in 1920's Beijing. What are we going to do, bury our heads in the sand and pretend history never happened? This is a beautiful, tragic tale of love and loss, and will do much to explain certain key elements of Chinese history. This is truly a thinking person's film. Watch it today!
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