Farewell My Concubine (1993)

The critic hails Farewell My Concubine as a knockout worthy of sharing the Palme d'Or. It blends lush entertainment with a fearless denunciation of regimes that stifle life and art.

Chen Kaige's epic captures the sweep of 20th-century Chinese history through two opera apprentices whose bond and unrequited love mirror their performances, delivering a fascinating, beguiling and tragic portrait of the individual amid political turmoil.

Chen Kaige’s film is a big, eventful historical soap opera in the Doctor Zhivago mold, following two Beijing Opera performers through decades of political upheaval and personal betrayals. The director sustains interest over two and a half hours with brisk pacing that keeps the story from bogging down.

The film is a visually rich pageant of suffering across decades of Chinese history through the lives of two Peking Opera stars, but it struggles with emotional dynamics and plotting that make it feel more like downbeat soap opera than coherent epic.

Chen Kaige’s gorgeous, intoxicating epic is an unhurried journey through modern Chinese history that marks the coming of age of Chinese cinema. Its visual pageantry and psychological depth make it a film to lose oneself in.

Chen Kaige's epic is a rare film spectacle delivering action, history, exotic color, and a viciously intense love story rooted in personal and political turmoil. It is vastly entertaining and a serious cultural achievement.

The critic praises Chen Kaige's direct approach to China's history through the story of two Peking Opera actors over decades, noting how their personal betrayals and loyalties mirror the nation's turmoil. The visually spectacular epic is described as sumptuous, intelligent, enthralling and rhapsodic.