Farewell My Concubine, based on the novel by
Pik Wah Lee
A different
version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E
and
http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Farewell My
Concubine is a mesmerizing movie.
You can
find it on the New York Times ‘Best 1,000 Movies ever made list:
It won the
most important award in cinema-in my view:
-
The Palme d’Or
And some cherries
on top:
-
The Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best
Foreign Film and other coveted prizes
Farewell My
Concubine is a compelling story
And the
audience does not feel it is about three hours long.
The heroes
are Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, with an important part to play for Juxian,
after the first quarter of the film.
Dieyi would
be “the leading role” and he is the concubine from the title, even if his
sexual orientation is not 100% clear.
-
Not for me anyway
-
He could be homosexual- probably-
but he might as well be transgender, or something else- bisexual??
It is attested
today that people are born with a sexual orientation or another, even if there
would be fundamentalists that deny that…
And climate
change, that the world is older than the bible says- it was created in more
than seven days and so much more.
In the case
of Dieyi, the childhood experiences have had a major role and an impact
difficult to assess on his personality.
His mother
was a prostitute and she decides to give the boy to this school or academy that
trained opera singers.
Here I have
a qualm and have noticed a certain paradox that could be explained by the
importance of the actors…
The teacher,
when he receives the child says something like:
-
You know, prostitutes and actors are
despised in equal measure
-
Only later we can see that the stars
of the opera are actually worshipped, but I guess it is just the celebrities
The boys
are beaten and in the case of Dieyi, they assign him the role of the concubine
in an important Chinese work.
Therefore he
has to learn by heart lines that state at a certain point that he was “born a
girl”, but he makes a mistake.
That is
punished severely and that school looks more like the training camp in Full
Metal Jacket or films in that line.
At another
moment, the teacher is pleased because the boy does not know anymore – is he a
girl or a boy- which means he is perfect for the part.
In the background
and also at center stage, we have the various important moments of Chinese
history of the twentieth century- with the republic, then the occupation by the
Japanese and the escape of the nationalists to Taiwan- I personally prefer that
country and recognize it to the communist dragon- and finally the arrival of
the communists and their “cultural revolution” and abuses…
Throughout,
Dieyi is not just committed to his friend- that he loves, probably has desires
for- but he also risks his integrity and commits acts that he does not want in
order to get Xiaolou out of trouble when the Japanese take him in, for
instance.
Juxian, who
was initially a prostitute, complicates the dynamic and the love triangle makes
for an interesting development.
Dieyi hates
his rival and the two compete up to the moment(s) where they have to cooperate
to save the man they both love.
This is
indeed a miraculous work.
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