The basics: two young Chinese boys go to opera school together in the 1920s, and grow up to become big stars. Their lives revolve around their specialty act, the classic Chinese opera, `Farewell My Concubine,' to such a degree that their offstage life begins to reflect their onstage one (shades of `I Pagliacci').
Everybody loves FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE but me. And I can certainly see why they love it: it is an epic view of the story of China's 20th century, magnificently shot. All the same, it leaves me cold for much the same reason that another epic, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, did. It is chiefly the story of what happens to the protagonists, not the story of what they do.
This is also why, again unlike everybody else, I like the second half of this movie better than the first. The second half has Gong Li in it, who (in addition to making the film more beautiful, as she would any film) is the most dynamic character present, the one who most determinedly takes her destiny in hand. It has the courtroom scene, which is the only one where Daeyi tries (and fails) to influence his own fate. And it has the Cultural Revolution scene, where Shitou finally makes an important decision with immediate, and tragic, results.
The first half, on the other hand, I found almost unwatchable. Behind disgustingly coarse subtitles, we are forced to endure scene after scene of little boys being tortured. I just don't enjoy that sort of thing, and I frankly feel uncomfortable about those who do. It might be different if the torture actually had a purpose, if the kids were suffering in order to achieve something, but it is made deliberately and brutally clear that this is not the case: the teachers act with the same sadism toward both the good and the bad students, and think nothing of completely destroying their precious talent by maiming them, killing them, or driving them to suicide. Furthermore, the first half appears to portray Daeyi's homosexuality as being something he learned in his youth. This does not accord with scientific observation, which clearly suggests that homosexuality is not a learned behavior.
I admit I am being cynical here, but I believe that Daeyi's homosexuality has given this movie a popularity with the faux intelligentsia that it would not enjoy otherwise. Many who would denounce the love triangle as cliché if it consisted of two men in pursuit of the same woman will claim to suddenly find the formula interesting when, as in this case, it consists of a man and a woman in pursuit of the same man. After all, this movie dares to ask the question, if a straight woman and a gay man both love a straight man, which will he choose? What do you mean, you guessed already? This is a Great Dramatic Question, dammit!
My first exposure to Chinese opera was from Zhang Yimou's RAISE THE RED LANTERN, where I found the performance of the opera singer quite enchanting. I'm afraid I did not enjoy the operatic element of this movie nearly as much. To my Western ear, Daeyi's singing voice sounds grating. The masks generally look grotesque. The acrobatics, I admit, were very impressive, lending an energy to the performance that Western opera would benefit from. But for me, opera will always stand or fall on the vocal performances, and those were lacking. This is probably another reason I didn't enjoy the movie: if I had felt the beauty of the opera as many Chinese do, and could have shared the two principals' passion for it, I wouldn't have found the experience of the movie so unmoving.
Rating: ** out of ****.
Recommendation: What can I say? Everybody else enjoys it; don't mind me.
Everybody loves FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE but me. And I can certainly see why they love it: it is an epic view of the story of China's 20th century, magnificently shot. All the same, it leaves me cold for much the same reason that another epic, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, did. It is chiefly the story of what happens to the protagonists, not the story of what they do.
This is also why, again unlike everybody else, I like the second half of this movie better than the first. The second half has Gong Li in it, who (in addition to making the film more beautiful, as she would any film) is the most dynamic character present, the one who most determinedly takes her destiny in hand. It has the courtroom scene, which is the only one where Daeyi tries (and fails) to influence his own fate. And it has the Cultural Revolution scene, where Shitou finally makes an important decision with immediate, and tragic, results.
The first half, on the other hand, I found almost unwatchable. Behind disgustingly coarse subtitles, we are forced to endure scene after scene of little boys being tortured. I just don't enjoy that sort of thing, and I frankly feel uncomfortable about those who do. It might be different if the torture actually had a purpose, if the kids were suffering in order to achieve something, but it is made deliberately and brutally clear that this is not the case: the teachers act with the same sadism toward both the good and the bad students, and think nothing of completely destroying their precious talent by maiming them, killing them, or driving them to suicide. Furthermore, the first half appears to portray Daeyi's homosexuality as being something he learned in his youth. This does not accord with scientific observation, which clearly suggests that homosexuality is not a learned behavior.
I admit I am being cynical here, but I believe that Daeyi's homosexuality has given this movie a popularity with the faux intelligentsia that it would not enjoy otherwise. Many who would denounce the love triangle as cliché if it consisted of two men in pursuit of the same woman will claim to suddenly find the formula interesting when, as in this case, it consists of a man and a woman in pursuit of the same man. After all, this movie dares to ask the question, if a straight woman and a gay man both love a straight man, which will he choose? What do you mean, you guessed already? This is a Great Dramatic Question, dammit!
My first exposure to Chinese opera was from Zhang Yimou's RAISE THE RED LANTERN, where I found the performance of the opera singer quite enchanting. I'm afraid I did not enjoy the operatic element of this movie nearly as much. To my Western ear, Daeyi's singing voice sounds grating. The masks generally look grotesque. The acrobatics, I admit, were very impressive, lending an energy to the performance that Western opera would benefit from. But for me, opera will always stand or fall on the vocal performances, and those were lacking. This is probably another reason I didn't enjoy the movie: if I had felt the beauty of the opera as many Chinese do, and could have shared the two principals' passion for it, I wouldn't have found the experience of the movie so unmoving.
Rating: ** out of ****.
Recommendation: What can I say? Everybody else enjoys it; don't mind me.