Each section represents a different era in Chinese history and the lives of the characters. The two are inseparable, until the woman Juxian (Gong Li) comes between them.įarewell My Concubine is neatly divided into eight chapters, including a 1977 prologue and epilogue that bookend the story. Douzi, now going by the name of Chen Dieyi (Leslie Cheung), and Shitou, called Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi), are major opera stars, and their production, 'Farewell My Concubine' is nationally known. Thirteen years later, their suffering has paid off. It quickly becomes apparent that these are the most talented of the master's pupils, and he pushes them harder than his other students. In 1924 Beijing, the youthful Douzi and Shitou are brought together under the thumb of the strict master of a small acting troupe. Deserving of its award at Cannes and of its prominent position in 1993's New York Film Festival, Farewell My Concubine is a motion picture experience that few will soon forget after leaving the theater. Initially banned in China but shown to international acclaim, Chen Kaige's film is one of the year's true masterpieces.

Zulawski tackles Modest Mussorgsky’s famous opera about the bloody battle for ascendancy to the throne of Russia in the 17th-century! With a score conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, Zulawski adds extra layers of devilish meta-textual embellishment by composing the film’s imagery as though we are watching a theater piece of a film crew making a movie about the opera of “Boris Godounov”! As well, the picture is full of delightful anachronisms that mock the then-contemporary Russian government, alongside jabs at other 20th-century dictatorships.Farewell My Concubine spans fifty-three years, presenting the lives of two men against the historical backdrop of a country in upheaval.

Chinese opera movie