Review of Farewell My Concubine (1993) by Matthew B — 06 Mar 2008
A glorious epic - a majestic paean to the bewildering complexity and myriad-faceted grandeur of Beijing Opera. Leslie Cheung's beautifully androgynous performance as Cheng Dieyi is a mighty center, and Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, and You Ge (wondrous as the effeminate, serpentine Yuan) form a masterful cast.
Kaige Chen's sumptuous filmmaking brings alarming relevance to one of the most esoteric and mystifying art forms ever exhibited, and the design helmed by Yuhe Yang and Zhanjia Yang (not to mention the minutely detailed perfection of the makeup design by Fan Qingshan and Guan Rui Xu) is rivaled, I believe, only by the visual grandeur of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor.
This review of Farewell My Concubine (1993) was written by Matthew B on 06 Mar 2008.
Farewell My Concubine has generally received very positive reviews.
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