Farewell My Concubine

Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese production about two men, Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) and Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung), both orphans and trained since childhood to be opera stars. This epic film traces the close but often volatile friendship of the two men as 52 years of Chinese history unfolds around them. Xiaolou eventually takes a bride, a beautiful young prostitute named Juxian (Gong Li), and the homosexual Dieyi acts like a spurned lover even though Xiaolou never reciprocates Dieyi's feelings. Despite these difficulties, Juxian stands by the two men during many lean, hard years. The film depicts the difficulties imposed on the Peking Opera following the political upheavals and ideologies imposed on it by the Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse Tung. Farewell My Concubine was a critically acclaimed international success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and was directed by Chen Keige, a leading figure of Chinese cinema.