Last night, ABC 5 scored a major coup by exhibiting a movie whose acclaim is phenomenal to say the least. I am speaking of the movie “Farewell My Concubine”. I have not seen the liner notes but I think mostly that it is directed by the much renown Chinese genius named Zhang Yimou.
It was the second time that I have seen the movie. I have seen it first while I was in Manila about ten years ago. I was residing in a boarding house in Sampaloc in order to prepare for that year’s CPA board exams and I had to call a friend from Zamboanga who was also around town, Zulficar, so that I could have some companion. I was new to the big city and did not know much how to get to SM Megamall where the film is exclusively exhibited. He said it was a Chinese film. I said it has a subtitle and it’s critically acclaimed in almost all the papers. He said the rain was pouring hard (and it was) and the rain, as well as knee-high flooding in the streets of Manila, gave him an excuse not to accompany me. But as in a cliché, I braved the storms that day and found out later that the film was worth every effort. In fact, it ranks among my all-time favorite movies namely “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Dead Poets Society”; films which I have seen countless times before and yet every viewing allows me newer glimpses, fresher outlooks of the story and discover some aspects of the film that I never minded before.
“Farewell My Concubine” is about a story of a triumvirate of protagonists, or antagonists depending on each viewer’s point of perception, namely Deiyl, Xoulie and Ms. Juxian. You could say that they have a love triangle made for the ages. Never had a film so expertly dramatized this kind of drama before, paralleled only perhaps by the three-way love affair told and retold in “The Wuthering Heights”.
Deiyl was a whore’s son who was left forcefully to the care of an opera house when he was a child. When he entered the training school for acting, he never saw his mother again. Through ardous and often-cruel years as an acting apprentice, Deiyl blossomed into an opera star playing a female (of all characters), more specifically as the concubine of a distraught king who was defeated by an intruding army from a rival kingdom. The concubine killed herself when everything was seem lost and even while the defeated king allowed her to flee. The concubine maximized the tragedy by killing herself instead of facing the possibility of becoming disloyal to the king. Deiyl played the character as the concubine so well that one patron declared that the opera should have been tilted “Farewell to the King” because the king entirely becomes irrelevant in the entire process especially when Deiyl starts to sing and dance the last fatal dance to the king.
Xoulie plays the king in the opera. In days in the old acting school, Xioulie was Deiyl’s constant companion and apparently some sort of a homosexual bond blossomed between the two. Deiyl lamented (when Xioulie finally announced to him that he was to marry Ms. Juxian, a nearby prostitute from the House of Blossoms), that he and Xioulie “should be together for a lifetime and a second less would not make it an entire lifetime”. But as it was, Xioulie loved Ms. Juxian so much that the marriage proceeded, giving cause to great troubles in the relation between Deiyl, Xioulie and Ms. Juxian. Yet, amidst the troubles they had, they clung to each other in times of great distress, through the harshness of the Japanese invasion and the Nazistic behaviours of the Red Soldiers of Mao Zedong. In the midst of these turbulent hours, there evolved the most unlikely bond among three hapless soul caught in the whirlwind of human indiscretions. As the movie went along, the troubles seemed became the more weightier that at the end of the movie, Deiyl killed himself and the scars among the people in the movie had become finally all too apparent and enduring. The troubles in the characters have now paralleled the troubles of the times China was in the early part of the 20th century---through the Japanese invasion towards the painful Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s. The good thing about the tragedy was that in the end, Xioulie and Ms Juxian could live peacefully among themselves, perhaps apart since the movie did not hint so much if they remain as lovers despite the betrayal that separated them so grievously.
Since the tragic ending leaves your heart a little heavy, the film itself on the other hand was a grand celebration of cinematic art. It is a kind of juxtaposition of film techniques that is not found in Hollywood or even in Europe. It is entirely Asian in character and it has a beauty of its own. It is photographed stunningly and the production designed leave no details unminded that one is taken back to 1930’s China in the most effortless of manner. Like “Lawrence of Arabia” it is almost like a “perfect film”. For me a perfect film must consist the following elements: a.) a good casting, b.) a good production design, c.) a convincing story and d.) a camera that is ever-moving throughout the film, a that feat could only be attained by film directors who does not be lazy even for a single second while making the movie. Some directors became contented with approximates but a few good of them does not rest unless the things that is shown on the wide-screen becomes perfect.
In the end, we seek the lessons of the story. When I watch a film. I do not seek for lessons in anticipation. I just need to enjoy a good film experience, that’s all. But since we are at the end of this posting, we could perhaps dwell on the wisdom that is imparted by this movie. In my mind, “Farewell My Concubine” teaches us to seek the strength in our character and continue to have faith in the perseverance of our humanity; that in the end it is dignity that allow us to proceed in life and that no amount of money and fame could substitute for lost honor through infidelity and disloyalty to the norms and mores that we hold dear. We must stand by the principles we cherish in our hearts. Or at least, we must try to abide by them even if at times the troubles that hound us is insufferable
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