Film analysis of Farewell my concubine

¶ … film journal for Farewell My Concubine, a 1993 Chinese drama film directed by Chen Kaige.

Film journal: Farewell my Concubine

The 1993 film Farewell my Concubine chronicles the history of the Chinese communist revolution by focusing on the lives of two young boys who perform in the legendary Peking Opera. One boy named Dieyi is consigned to play female roles; the other named Xiaolou plays more traditionally male roles. The boys are friends, but sexual tensions constantly simmer between them. Dieyi seems attracted to Xiaolou and later resents Xiaolou's marriage to Juxian, a former prostitute.

From childhood, the two men are raised in a relatively apolitical environment. They are so focused upon preparing themselves for the Opera they do not understand the political turmoil that bubbles up around them and threatens to destroy their livelihoods. Eventually, the forces of the external world penetrate the sanctuary of the Opera. Dieyi is accused of being a collaborator with the Japanese. Miraculously, he survives this accusation -- only to face the Cultural Revolution during which Xiaolou denounces him as a homosexual and also denounces Juxian as a prostitute. In despair, Juxian kills herself soon afterward.

The major theme of the film is the tension between art and life. The two young boys are trained in the grueling acrobatics of the Opera from a young age. Their life is their art. Although they are poor, they are able to impersonate rich kings and courtesans on stage because of their vocations as performers yet they have no political power or influence. They have no other recourse but to become actors: when the young Dieyi is at first rejected for having six fingers, his mother cuts off his finger so he will be able to escape the life of poverty she has endured. In the context of the film this becomes a kind of symbolic castration -- Dieyi is forced to assume female roles, whether he wants to or not, just like all Chinese must eventually submit to the tide of history.

The boys are celebrated for their impersonations but their unworldliness nearly proves to be their downfall, such as when Dieyi flirts with Japanese soldiers. At first they are beloved because they embody the Chinese past in their movements and gestures; Mao's cultural revolutionaries later condemn them for their decadence. The blurry line between art and reality is further complicated by Dieyi, who is so convincingly raised as a girl and taught to impersonate women he seems to forget at times that he is of the male gender as an adult. He is extremely jealous when his former protector and friend Xiaolou is married and never quite forgives Juxian for taking away his boyhood companion.

However, unlike someone who is gay in most contexts, in which sexual preference is something which occurs organically, the film is highly ambiguous about the extent to which Dieyi's identity is forced upon him. Dieyi is not simply gay or even transgender -- it is decided that he must be like a woman for artistic reasons, not because of his personal inclinations and he initially resists having to sing that he is 'by nature' female rather than male. However, after repeated rapes and social conditioning which rewards him for simulating femaleness, the actor 'becomes' female in his own mind as well as on stage.