>From: mim@blythe.org (Maoist Intl'ist Mvmnt)
>Date: Wed, 29 Dec 93 18:27:53 EST
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


  * * * *  The Maoist Internationalist Movement  * * * *

            -   MIM Notes 84, January 1993   -



FILM REVIEW: FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
REVISIONIST HISTORY AT ITS BEST

This film chronicles the lives of two young boys (who become
men) from 1925-1977. As children, the boys are forced to
become theater actors in a boarding school which resembles a
boot camp. They are in training to join the so-called high
culture of the Peking opera, which the film lauds as
beautiful.

There is a current of homosexual tension in the relationship
between the two men. Douzi, the man who plays the female
role in their rendition of "Concubine," falls in love with
his partner, Shitou. Shitou does not return his feelings,
and later marries a prostitute (played by Gong Li from Raise
the Red Lantern) whom Douzi deeply resents. It is in part
because of the gay love that this movie was initially banned
in China.(1)

Further reasons for the initial (and current) censorship of
Farewell My Concubine include the portrayals of suicide and
political dissent.(2) But the most interesting part of the
movie is its portrayal of gender - exploring the way that
gender is constructed and privileged. Douzi is not simply a
man in love with another man. As the line between his opera
character and his real life is blurred, he is also at the
same time a woman (the concubine) in love with a man (the
king).

On the more reactionary side, the movie includes scenes from
the Cultural Revolution, in which the masses randomly
denounce their friends, wives, and family, but do not engage
in political struggle to try to reform the rich actors or
ex-prostitutes. The only scenes of the Cultural Revolution
are chaotic and destructive. There is no indication that any
positive change occurred during that time period at all.

The director, Chen Kaige, was 14 in 1966 when he "wrongly"
denounced his father. He later regretted his "betrayal" and
when he became a big movie director, he let his father work
for him on the movie sets.(3)

Director Chen Kaige, on his American tour promoting the
movie, denounces Communism and the Cultural Revolution as
evil.(3) "When I was a junior in high school, we believed in
a very beautiful world ... we heard a lot of good things
about communism... I didn't realize that was the wrong thing
to do."(3)

While MIM has publicly accepted responsibility for its
support of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party, even with
what did go wrong during the Cultural Revolution, Concubine
does no justice to the positive steps taken at that time,
including the steps taken to erase the distinction between
high and low culture. Chen Kaige's self-interest in
promoting his movie, as well as passing it by the
reactionary Deng-regime censors, means that he "forgets" to
show his viewers the real political struggle of the Cultural
Revolution.

- MC31 & MC255

Notes:
1. The Montreal Gazette 11/6/93, p. E5.
2. MacLean's 11/8/93, p. 62.
3. Chicago Tribune 10/31/93, p. 32.

                       * * *


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