Farewell My Concubine
The actors in this film were much better than in the last Chinese film we saw. Visually it wasn't as pretty, but it was still effective.
It was also really interesting to have people there who were familiar with Chinese culture and history (Kudoes Hans). Especially since the film had so much history in it. (Modern History can be interesting-who knew?)
I was just wondering about how the Chinese viewed homosexuality. They supported men taking on the roles of women in the theater, but when they had that scene in the square (the one where the 'King' said he didn't love the prostitue) it seemed that they found it morally reprehensible. In this (notice the emphasis) movie, I don't think the 'Concubine' started out gay, but was molded that way by his circumstance. Feel free to comment on that line.
At the end of the movie, the final question that I had to ask was the same as the one the 'Concubine' asked throughout the movie. Why does the Concubine have to die?
posted by Ivory @ 10:04 AM
1 Comments:
First of all, in real life I don't think you can be made gay as, I agree with Ivory, the movie suggests. For one thing, last year I was reading in New Scientist (England's superior version of Science News) that they've discovered some of the genes involved in sexual identity (or as the cover proclaimed "the gay gene" :P ) Furthermore, I don't really animals capable of impressing gender roles in such a way as to make one gay and nearly all species have gay members from bacteria (though sex is defined differently and gay is more a confusion than anything else) up to bonobos which don't have a sexual preference at all and happens to be our closest relative.
That, being said, in the logic of the movie, I definately feel the main character was made gay and the attraction Ariana mentions is merely that concept of fate again, which figured very highly into the movie's structure. Ultimately, I feel the film was more movie than real life. And the story seems about as fake as Hollywood in the forties and fifties. Which isn't to say I didn't like it. I did. I just felt it was more artifice than truth.
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