Film review: Farewell My Concubine

Farewell My Concubine, adapted from Hong Kong writer Li Bihua's novel of the same name, is directed by Chen Kaige and written by Reed.

As a miracle in the history of Chinese film, Farewell My Concubine not only brought together elite filmmakers from the mainland and Taiwan, but also achieved great success on both commercial and artistic levels.

Reed used the scriptwriting structure of commercial films to make up for the shortcomings of director Chen Kaige's poetic narrative style, and all the actors, from the leading roles to the supporting roles, contributed to the perfect performance of this masterpiece, so that in the following two decades, no Chinese film can match it.

The 41st minute from the beginning of the film is the first act of the film. The theme of the first act is the distortion and transformation of Butterfly clothes.

At the beginning of the story, Duan Xiaolou and Chen Dieyi arrive at an empty Peking Opera house in their late years. Dieyi is calm, but the overlord is clearly no longer a king. This is kind of the wedge of the movie.

Memories of the past unfold in a flash of light.

Then the image turns to black and white, revealing the beginning of the memory.

Appearances in 1924, the period of beiyang government, jiang wenli is brilliant red as prostitutes and her 9-year-old children small beans, jiang wenli didn't say a word at this moment, but through a client a few movements and she said a few words of the lateral clear identity and personality of the characters, so vivid acting more in the following master received adzuki bean son reflected.

The camera turns to the opera, big brother small stone is accepting the master's punishment, at this time the picture gradually turns to color, indicating the beginning of the two bitter life.

Then Yanhong with small beans to go to the opera master Guan, hope to take small beans, it is worth mentioning, Jiang Wenli here brilliant acting, just a few minutes of the play, the performance of a prostitute and helpless. Jiang Wenli was still in college at that time, but her acting was amazing.

Master Guan refused to accept the little bean, because the little bean had six fingers. Red under the cruel cut off the son's six fingers, Guan master had to accept.

Two people meet for the first time, small stone is beaten, and small bean is cut off a finger, suggesting two people's road, from the beginning with blood and pain.

The children in the theater bully the new small beans, big brother small stone to take care of him however add, small beans to small stone feelings, also sprout here.

Into the theater, is year after year of hard training, the children's goal is only one, that is to become a "corner", and the chance of becoming a corner is very small.

The hardest thing for Bean is to bend his nature. Xiao Dou sang a very small part, but he never could get over the obstacle of cross-dressing. The movie used the famous Peking Opera song SiFan to show this awkward situation.

If the play wants to continue to practice, he must distort his nature, but at this time he is resisting. He is a child abandoned by his mother, and what he needs most is a sense of security. In order to get this sense of security, he first chooses confrontation, such as running away from the troupe with Lazarillo, but then they see the farewell my concubine on the stage.

The farewell my concubine on the stage is like another world, where there are crowds surrounded, prominent status, the most important thing is to have little bean wants the security, little bean saw tears, at this moment he understood that what he wanted, is to hide in the stage of the talent and beauty, to the death of the perfect world.

Because of this, the two children returned to the theatre, and Lazarillo returned to the theatre and committed suicide, knowing that he would never become an Angle.

This tragic figure with a short appearance left a deep impression on me. It can be said that lazarillo is a microcosm of homeless children in that era. And when he fled to the theater to see his concubine, that exclamation made the audience more sympathetic.

With small Lai Zi related to the sugar gourd this image, the space limit will not expand to speak.

Back after the small bean still can't pass "Sivan" this pass. Master's words run through Dieyi's life, telling Dieyi that the world will not change and that the only way to become a horn to gain security is to distort one's own nature, which is a painful process. The film grasps Dieyi's emotional progression in a very delicate way

Near the front of the big eunuch Zhang father-in-law's meeting, the troupe is ready to perform, the manager came to visit the class, specifically played a small part of the play, but the small beans still can not sing the sentence "I was female jiao e", the manager was disappointed. In order to save the troupe and the little bean, under the urgency of the little stone with a bloody way - with a bong hit mouth.

This is the climax of the first act, small beans inner struggle reached the apex, finally chose to yield, so far, small beans finally fluently sang "I was a female Jiao E, not a male son", to save the business of the troupe. Ironically, when everyone applauded the change of Dieyi, it was also the beginning of his unsolved tragic fate.

When I first saw it, I didn't understand the plot. Some netizens said that it was a kind of sexual metaphor, which was the expression technique of image. But in terms of plot, the transformation of Little Bean was the effect of accumulation.

It was a great shock to escape from the theater and see the concubine on the stage. In the end, Little Stone helped him complete his transformation in such a bloody and fierce way. From then on, he became Yu Ji and entered the realm of no madness and no survival.

The two perform Farewell My Concubine for the first time in the hall, and the performance is applauded by the public. Xiao Dou wins the appreciation of Zhang's father-in-law, who, according to the old custom, violates Xiao Dou, who first plays Yu Ji.

It was 1932, long after the Qing Dynasty had collapsed, but Zhang's father-in-law, who had served the Empress Dowager, was still eating the scraps of feudal society.

At this point the first act of the movie is almost over, but there is a foreshadowing before the second act begins. Zhang father-in-law violated the small beans to go out and meet an abandoned baby, he seemed to see the abandoned of their own, regardless of the teacher to dissuade the back, but he would not think that this act of kindness, but buried the future to destroy everything.

What is interesting is that when the little bean took the child back, and everyone was playing with the child, the little Bean's face was a look of pain and despair.

The above is the first act of the Farewell My Concubine, which mainly tells about the transformation of Xiao Dou and lays the foundation for the relationship between Dieyi (Xiao Dou) and Xiao Lou (Xiao Stone). The characters' personalities have been initially but fully established in the narrative.

Later in the second act, Chen Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, the young Qiuma, are very popular for a while, but they have different attitudes towards the human drama, and estranged after Xiaolou marries Ju Xian.

In the third act, the external pressure after liberation becomes the main contradiction. During the Cultural Revolution, people are forced to expose each other, and Juxian commits suicide. Many years later, Dieyi commits suicide with her sword when Duanchen and Diyi meet again.

I've always thought that one of the hallmarks of a good drama is that it's dense. Including plot, characters, emotions, thoughts, camera language, etc. (there are some exceptions, such as Love Letter, 12 Angry Men, etc.), and Farewell My Concubine is undoubtedly such a typical work.

However, such works often show the characteristics of multiple dimensions, wide content and large space for interpretation. In order to cover all aspects, I choose the plot as the main line and connect my own thinking and interpretation, because the plot is the foundation of everything. Although such a style as film criticism is not popular, but also the most appropriate.

When I began to write, I found that the content was unexpected. When I wrote a good manuscript on wechat, I added a lot of content, and I probably wrote it three times. Maybe a good movie is like this