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Farewell My Concubine
Farewell My Concubine
8.3
/10
1,720 Ratings

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE

Ba wang bie ji

Directed by Chen Kaige
China, Hong Kong, 1993
Drama, LGBTQ+, Romance

Synopsis

From the twenties to the seventies, from the Warlord era to the communist Cultural Revolution, the story of two actors and a concubine in the fifty years that changed China.

Synopsis

From the twenties to the seventies, from the Warlord era to the communist Cultural Revolution, the story of two actors and a concubine in the fifty years that changed China.

Our take

Winner of the 1993 Palme d’Or, Chen Kaige’s widescreen epic draws on the classical theater for its expansive vision. Its modern take on taboos surrounding homosexuality and gender performativity— a first in Chinese cinema—was not without controversy: a queer, epoch-spanning masterpiece for the ages.