Farewell My Concubine
Short description
Farewell My Concubine follows two boys who meet while training at a Beijing opera academy in the 1920s and become the leading performers of the opera "Farewell My Concubine." One takes female roles, the other male ones. Their bond is tested by the political upheavals that sweep China over the following decades and by a woman who marries one of them. Lilian Lee, who wrote the novel the screenplay is based on, shares writing credit with Lu Wei, and Hsu Feng produced.
Chen Kaige directed; it was the first of the 13 films he has directed in chronological order, ahead of The Emperor and the Assassin in 1998. Leslie Cheung plays Cheng Dieyi, Zhang Fengyi plays Duan Xiaolou, and Gong Li plays Juxian, with Lu Qi, Ying Da and Ge You among the supporting cast. Twenty-five cast members and 42 crew members are credited. The production cost about 4 million USD and took in roughly 6 million USD worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 8.1 out of 10 from around 37,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.9 out of 10 from some 710 votes. A critics' rating of 8.4 out of 10 from 52 reviews places it above both audience scores. The film runs 171 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- When Harvey Weinstein acquired the distribution rights to the film, he ordered 14 minutes of screen time to be cut. This version was shown in theaters in the United States and the United Kingdom. The full original version, lasting 171 minutes, was released on DVD.
- The role played by Zhang Fengyi was initially offered to Jackie Chan, but he declined to avoid damaging his own on-screen image (the film touches on the theme of homosexuality).
- During filming, Leslie Cheung hardly spoke Northern Chinese (also known as Mandarin). He was even less capable of speaking with a Beijing accent, so all his lines were dubbed by Yang Lisheng (whose name is not listed in the credits).
- The role played by Leslie Cheung was initially offered to John Lone.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
