Farewell My Concubine (1993)

''The line between reality and acting has become blurred.''
--
The complexity of the plot coupled with the controversial themes set against a backdrop of historic events made it a compelling film to behold. The beauty of this film lies in its hauntingly terrifying realism that most people don't usually think about, the thought of cultures evolving in such a brutally fast way while we all struggle to keep our problems under control not noticing how the rest of the world changes so drastically around us, makes this movie one of the best social commentaries ever filmed.

Created in 1993 it might appear old-fashioned in form for those who are used to today's blockbuster films but it is certainly modern in psychological dynamics, it’s a film that you can lose yourself in, one that washes over you like a pleasant nostalgic memory.
Its beautiful cinematography combined with powerful symbolism certainly deserves all of the awards it earned, masterfully crafted each scene is so poignant and engaging you don't even realize you're holding your breath while watching it. And despite the film’s length reaching almost three hours, Chen Kaige (director) certainly cannot be accused of it being draggy or slow-moving. The pace snowballs towards the last hour, with 30 years of history compacted into its final sixty minutes.

A few words must be spent on the quality of the acting, for both the adult and child cast, which was immaculate. Leslie Cheung once again showing us how versatile he truly was.

Our protagonist Dieyi is easily one of the most relatable characters, going through endless tragedy our little concubine delivers an iconic show for everybody to see. Witnessing the dark behavior of human nature through this film can only make you empathize with the people who suffered from countless hardships and misfortune.

The political dimension of the film, its social commentary and its relevance for today, where questions of how can one still put on makeup and play-act when war was breaking out the following day, gives us pause to reflect.

Despite (ironically) being initially banned in China but shown to international acclaim such as' Cannes & The New York Film Festival, Farewell My Concubine is a motion picture experience that only a few will soon forget after giving it a try.

For me, this film represents beauty in its purest form, a masterpiece that stands the test of time.
I will give this movie a full 10/10 .

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MASTERPIECE!!!!! FABULOUS!!!!! BEAUTIFULL!!!! wonderful movie indeed!! shown history of China in a most realistic manner...... It's an arthouse film and i recommend people to get some prerequisite knowledge regarding the history of China and most importing Pekking or Beijing Opera Culture so that you won't miss on any details, although you can yourself understand the history through movie but for that you must know something about visual storytelling and must notice dialogues & incidents with timeline, for e.g. Japanese colonization, Nationalist Party in power, emergence of Communist Party, Mao Zedong era, Cultural Revolution, Props, and so many minute details that i could tell you but it would be too much for here!! Social issues raised in the movie were way ahead of its time especially for a country like China.
If you could gather the brief information about the topics i mentioned it would be sufficient to understand the movie.

At last i would recommend this movie to everyone out there who has a bit of slight interest in such movies and i would be more than happy to help you out in clarifying the movie further :)

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