Criterion Collection: Farewell My Concubine, dir. Chen Kaige

The Wiz RECOMMENDS Farewell My Concubine From a pure visual perspective, few historical epics match the visual sumptuousness of Farewell My Concubine, Chen Kaige's Palme d'Or winning film. It's astonishing on two fronts: the lived in, authentic feel of China during the periods of time the film is portraying and the gorgeous, colorful visuals of the characters performing their plays. Everything set outside of the Peking opera gives the film an incredibly distinct feel that surrounds the characters in a rich history that gives the film a distinct weight when watching. As for the plays, the colorful make-up and costumes, along with the sets and playhouses they are performed at, give a grand feel to these scenes. But the film is also buoyed by Leslie Cheung's excellent performance as Daiyi, a man who has fallen in love with his acting partner who will never reciprocate his love. Cheung plays Daiyi beautifully and tragic, wearing the years of abuse and hard training on his face. He adds a depth of character that doesn't need to be said as he inhabits the role so deeply that he embodies Daiyi in all his complex forms. But honestly, the love triangle between Daiyi, his acting partner Xiaolou (played by Fengyi Chang) and his partner's wife Juxian, played by Gong Li is the weakest part of the film. Neither Juxian or Xiaolou are as captivating as Daiyi and as a result the film starts to drag when the movie concentrates solely on their drama and squabbles. In fact, all the drama is utterly reliant on Cheung to carry it through his force of will performance. Though Wiz did enjoy the film overall, he also felt that having some background info on the history of China at this time might have helped gleamed more from the film and it's themes. The film without that information is still good, but he will likely seek out more information about that time period when he makes a second viewing attempt.