Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

Province of Laguna

College of Arts and Sciences

Ann - Jeniel A. Yusores November 26, 2019
BS Psychology 2B ǀ LIT 1 Mr. Ernesto Thaddeus M. Solmerano

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
Film Analysis
Introduction
"Farewell My Concubine" is two films at once: An epic spanning a half century of modern
Chinese history, and a melodrama about life backstage at the famed Peking Opera. The story
involves the Peking opera where a vicious Master Guan directs, who rules over his troupe with
an iron fist, often mistreating them, and even beating them nearly to death. For instance, a
prostitute whose son is a talented performer is told that the son will not be accepted, because he
has a deformed hand. The prostitute cuts the extra finger off of her sons’ hand in order to make
him acceptable, and Master Guan accepts. This character is named Douzi, and his friends are
Laizi and Shitou.

Focus of the analysis

PLOT
In 1924, young Cheng Dieyi begins training at the Beijing Opera House at the same time as
Duan Xiaolou. Cheng specializes in playing female parts, often against Duan's commanding
male leads. While pretending to be in love with Duan onstage, Cheng begins to develop actual
romantic feelings for his co-star, which are not reciprocated. Over the next 50 years, the two
men maintain a complicated friendship as China undergoes turbulent changes.

CHARACTERS
 Master Guan - A terrifying, abusive troupe-leader whose absolute discipline leads the
opera to success.
 Douzi - A young actor whose mother, a prostitute, gave him to the opera troupe, cutting
off a mutated sixth finger from Douzi's hand before turning him over to his fate. He
 begins to fall in love with his friend, maybe because Douzi plays women, and Shitou,
his friend, often plays Douzi's character's love interest and hero.
 Shitou - Another actor in the opera, the lead man. His performances with Douzi are
typically regarded as spectacular, but off the stage, there is tension between them, and
ultimately, Shitou takes a prostitute for his wife.
 Juxian - is Shitou's lover, allegedly a prostitute, who meets an untimely fate when she
becomes the subject of public ridicule.
 Zhang - A eunuch and a sexual deviant, Zhang's sword collection is useful to the troupe
for props, and the two stars are invited to Zhang's house, but Zhang forcibly sexually
assaults Douzi during their visit.
SETTING
The film is set in a politically tumultuous China during the 20th century.
THEME
The movie Farewell my Concubine is a strikingly beautiful tale about love and betrayal, of not
only individuals but also a country and its culture.

Thesis
Men and women have been attracted to the opposite sex since the beginning of time, but
throughout history, there have always been exceptions to that case. Homosexuals have always
been subjected to battering and discrimination by society. It was not until recently that these
people spoke out and confronted society about the rights that they deserve. The fictional tale
Farewell My Concubine describes the torments and sufferings that homosexuals have to go
through. These torments and sufferings are the results of stereotypes from the society.

Key supporting points Evidence from the text

1. IRONY.  The mother, a courtesan, could no

longer carry the burden of having a
child at her side. The mother, pushed to
the edge of desperation cut off her
 finger herself with a chopper at a street
store.
2. CONFLICT.  Douzi had now come to terms with life
at the school, despite its harsh regime,
where beatings were brutal and regular,
and fear of the master is the order of the
day.
 When Douzi was made to undergo
extremely gruelling stretching
exercises, where bricks were used to
force his legs into a split position,
Shitou empathised and dislodged one
of the bricks to lessen his pain. Shitou
was punished severely by the master,
with beatings by a sword, and then
made to kneel in the winter snow with
a pail of water over his head, till the
water froze over.
3. IRONY.  Men performed both male and female
roles in Chinese opera, at that time.
Despite understanding the
consequences of disobedience, Douzi
refused to take on the feminine role,
singing the words “I am by nature a
girl, not a boy," incorrectly.
 The male chauvinism and the dominant
role of men in Chinese society then had
instilled in him a sullen pride in his
manhood, even while he was only a
child, and physical pain was not about
to cause him to capitulate.
 4. FORESHADOWING. That first lonely night at the dormitory of the
children, he burnt the robe his mother had
given him, which marks a disavowal and
severance of links with his only blood relation.
This first betrayal would later surface in his
opium-induced haze, despite the mental
suppression he had exercised over it.

Conclusion
Having examined the epic, Farewell, my Concubine as a series of betrayals, from the first
betrayal of the mother abandoning her child, to the last betrayal of the suicide of Dieyi, we must
note the betrayals began even before the first scene. The mother had borne the child as her body
betrayed itself, conceiving Douzi by mistake, as she was a prostitute. The events, from the first,
set in place an unstoppable momentum. The film espoused a fatalistic view of life, in its
multiplicity of events. The betrayals were multi-dimensional, from the personal level, to the
societal madness of the Cultural Revolution, where a society sets itself up against its people.
A few words must be spent on the quality of the acting, for both the adult and child cast, which
was immaculate. The political dimension of 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. The homosexual overtones of the film are
apparent, in the love of Douzi for Xiaolou and the various instances of pedastry. This was in a
time when the word “homosexual” itself had yet to be invented, but makes no less real the
veracity of the intensity of the feeling of love of a man for another man. The genius of Dieyi as
portrayed in the film, where his passion bordered on madness, the frailty of the human condition,
and yet the unbreakable nature of the human spirit. All these would however have to make
subject for another essay, for another day’s musing.
The machinations of fate seem as to be an unstoppable force, but the manner of Dieyi’s death,
though tragic, is ultimately triumphant, as he died in the embrace of his beloved, never having
given in before this point, despite all the barriers and suffering cast in his path. The final dramatic
conclusion, where life mirrors art, where reality copies fiction, which in turn replicates reality,
stands testament to the genius of the writer.