This is the title of a classic Chinese film made in 1993. I had heard about it somewhere long ago, and got a chance to view it today. It is stupendous, and unlike many of today's films that can't keep you interested for even an hour and a half, it leaves you wanting more after 170 minutes! That's real art, in my view.
Like Dr. Zhivago does for Russia, it also takes in a lot of the history of China from the Japan-China war to the Chiang Kai Shek era, to the communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. But all this is in the backdrop. The story is of two boys who become stage partners in an opera company and perform the role of the King and his concubine who remains loyal to him through thick and thin, finally laying down her life for him when his kingdom is about to be lost to a rival. The name of the opera they perform successfully is Farewell, My Concubine. This itself is mesmerising, and holds one spellbound when it is on, a few times in the movie.
As they turn successful, there enters a woman, a prostitute, whom one of them marries, and this drives a schism in the relationship of the 'stage brothers'. How they all get through the years of political turmoil and persecution, sometimes lucky and other times not, is the rest of the plot.
A must see, for any movie buff interested in good cinema One of the classics, reminds you of the Kurosawa films from Japan.
Like Dr. Zhivago does for Russia, it also takes in a lot of the history of China from the Japan-China war to the Chiang Kai Shek era, to the communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. But all this is in the backdrop. The story is of two boys who become stage partners in an opera company and perform the role of the King and his concubine who remains loyal to him through thick and thin, finally laying down her life for him when his kingdom is about to be lost to a rival. The name of the opera they perform successfully is Farewell, My Concubine. This itself is mesmerising, and holds one spellbound when it is on, a few times in the movie.
As they turn successful, there enters a woman, a prostitute, whom one of them marries, and this drives a schism in the relationship of the 'stage brothers'. How they all get through the years of political turmoil and persecution, sometimes lucky and other times not, is the rest of the plot.
A must see, for any movie buff interested in good cinema One of the classics, reminds you of the Kurosawa films from Japan.
1 comment:
Nice. No wonder China is high on creativity.
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