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A powerful, beautiful and moving biographical story of two Chinese opera performers whose difficult times are followed over a fifty year span.
They are trained together (quite cruelly) at opera school; one of them, Douzi, becomes a player of principal female parts as is the custom in Chinese Opera.
They rise to great heights on stage, but Douzi (later known as "Cheng Dieye" and superbly played by Leslie Cheung) expects more personal commitment offstage than his heterosexual partner Duan Xiaolou, played by Fengyi Zhang, is prepared to give, and the relationship is stricken again and again by the existence of the latter's wife Juxian, played by Li Gong.
The turbulent history of 20th century China is followed and the pair's life is always complicated by upheaval, but most of all during the Cultural Revolution.
I found Douzi a very appealing female in costume, but there is no transgender element to the character off-stage at all, and in fact Douzi's temperament is rather self-destructive.
The film title is taken from the title of the principal operatic work they perform, in which the female consort of an epic king is faithful, ultimately unto death, and the parallels and divergences between the operatic role and real life are poignant and dramatic. This is a long film and not always an easy one, but its enveloping power is commanding.
Directed by Kaige Chen, with English subtitles; the Chinese version is called Ba wang bie ji.
There was a 1992 television version, almost identical.
HF April 2001
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