GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE SECTION B

Evenings Out

Leslie Cheung in Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine.

66

This film poses serious questions about the role of art in a society. Is art simply a toy of the elite, or must it provide access to all people?

Concubine: Life imitating art imitating life

Farewell My Concubine Cedar Lee Theatre

Reviewed by Charlton Harper

A problem: What to make of a movie that fails to engage the viewer on deep levels of emotion and involvement, yet provides a rich and fascinating story set within high standards of production and acting? Farewell My Concubine embodies this problem while also raising complicated philosophical questions that evade easy answers.

As the movie opens, it's 1977 Peking, post-Cultural Revolution. Two men, Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) and Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung), enter a darkened arena. They are former stars of the Peking Opera and are dressed in opera costume. They tell us that they have not performed together in more than 20 years.

The time frame shifts backwards to 1925, a time of warlords. The city still retains bits of its imperial heritage, most evident through the opera. Unlike Western opera, Peking Opera combines acrobatics, song, recitation and dance. Where the average Puccini opera is a raw, emotionally charged steamroller, Chinese opera evolved to a highly stylized art. Every gesture and movement, each detail in makeup and costume are weighted with precise meaning. An actor will spend years trying to perfect a role, made more difficult due to the knowledge and involvement of opera audiences. The performers are generally all men and all roles fall into basic categories like "warrior" and "female," roles that are an actor's for a lifetime.

Xiaolou and Dieyi are young boys training for operatic careers. Their training is often severe and brutal-there are many beatings and punishments-in order to achieve a high level of commitment and ability. Xiaolou trains for military roles, while Dieyi's feminine beauty makes him a natural for female roles. The opera that will become their trademark is "Farewell My Concubine," the story of the King of Chu, his defeat by his rivals and his final hours with his favored concubine, who kills herself rather than flee her king..

The film follows Xiaolou and Dieyi through their rise to operatic fame, set against the political turmoil of modern China. We see the invasion of Manchuria by Japan and the subsequent war; the internal struggles between Nationalist and Communist forces for control of China; the later Cultural Revolution; and, finally, the 1970s easing of policy following the death of Mao.

Throughout the years, Dieyi and Xiaolou ride the wave of their fame to its peak, but also become victims of their own jealousies and passions (Dieyi never recovers from Xiaolou's marriage to Juxian, a former illustrious Peking prostitute), and innocent pawns in the larger political battles. Their careers lurch forward and stop repeatedly with the changes in the political climate. Their personal lives also shift endlessly, from stable and fruitful, to the wrenching moment when Xiaolou will betray both Dieyi and Juxian at the hands of a people's tribunal.

The film poses serious questions about the role of art in a society. Is art simply a toy of the elite, or must it provide access to all people? Dieyi struggles to come to terms with the "new" philosophy of the proletariat, wishing instead for an art that is centered on lofty ideals like love and commitments, elevated above transient politics. Throughout, there is a constant blurring of the line between art and life. While Xiaolou remains a pragmatic survivor, for Dieyi, the rigors of his early training and his own fascination with his art have erased the distinction between reality and fantasy. In his final moment, his identification with the doomed concubine becomes complete.

The performances by all principals are superb. Leslie Cheung believably captures the changing moods of Dieyi, from actor as concubine, to man obsessively identifying as concubine. Gong Li as Juxian brings out the complexity of a woman who can only see her own ego-centered struggle over Dieyi for the love of Xiaolou, and yet must survive the chaos that surrounds them all. At one point during the screening I saw, all sound went out for roughly fifteen minutes. While the essence of the plot was not harmed, thanks to the subtitles, you could almost follow along simply by facial expressions and movement. The acting is that good. While I have never been turned off by subtitled films, for once I did feel the limitations presented by encapsulated English renderings of very complex issues. But like Chinese opera, movement and action, color and light all combine to increase the impact of the story.

Farewell My Concubine is not for anyone looking for escape and passive pleasure. It's discomforting and often painful. But its message and issues range far beyond the specialized audience the film will draw. Like the young boys who endure rigorous, physical training in hopes of achieving something special and great, where there is no pain there is no gain.