Surviving in Farewell My Concubine

The film Farewell My Concubine directed by Chen Kaige provides a commanding view of society’s forceful impact on people and the raw human instinct to survive. It displays not only the physical implications but also the immensely psychological influence through the doomed, intertwined lives of Dieyi and Xiaolou. The film begins in 1925 until 1977, displaying the Japanese invasion of China and the Cultural Revolution. It chronicles their lives and experiences in this time period, allowing a glimpse of what hardships they endured.

At the start of the film, Dieyi’s mother attempts to give him off to the Beijing Opera school simply because she can’t afford to feed him anymore. Upon his rejection due to a sixth finger, his mother goes and gets a knife. She chops off the abhorred finger. While the boy is still bleeding, she hands him off to the officials of the school. It’s understandable why she would just hand him off: he was one too many a mouth too feed, and she couldn’t afford to split her chances of survival with him.

The boys undergo rigorous, abusive training to achieve the ultimate prize and satisfaction: being the greatest performer for the Beijing Opera and living a better life. Dieyi is given the role of a woman, the concubine in the famous opera, Farewell My Concubine, a role that he will perform for the rest of his life along with Xiaolou, who is the king in the opera. Initially, however, he always recited, “I am by nature a boy, not a girl,” incorrectly. He eventually recites the line correctly, but by doing so, he distorts his own perception: reality and the theater start to blend together.

During the Japanese invasion, Dieyi performs for the Japanese soldiers. It eventually leads to Dieyi and Xiaolou’s arrest and questioning during the Cultural Revolution. Xiaolou willingly admits that he doesn’t love Juxian because he doesn’t want to die. He was willingly to forfeit his relationship for the approval of the masses. Dieyi, on the other hand, in the end, he takes his own life, like the concubine in the opera. He follows the storyline to his death. The film vividly presents the effects of society and how it shapes people and their decisions for the sake of preservation.