Farewell My Concubine (1993)

Part of the series Period Romance in May!

Two shows only: this is a special presentation of the 30th Anniversary uncut 4K restoration of the ravishing epic romance from China & Hong Kong, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1993.

An unhurried journey on the great tide of modern Chinese history, this gorgeous, intoxicating epic is confident enough of its visual and narrative power not to rush the telling. Farewell My Concubine (1993) traces the complex emotional relationship between its three protagonists (Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, and Gong Li), shaped and reshaped in response to both political events and the demands of their own hearts. But rather than the usual romantic triangle, it has both a man and a woman passionately in love with the same man… This is a film that not only covers a lot of territory, its sense of visual pageantry brings all of it vividly to life. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)

Visually spectacular. Sumptuous in every respect. Intelligent, enthralling, rhapsodic.

Time Out

What is amazing, given the conditions under which the film was made, is the freedom and energy with which it plays…FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE is a demonstration of how a great epic can function. Like such dissimilar films as DR. ZHIVAGO and A PASSAGE TO INDIA, it took me to another place and time, and made it emotionally comprehensible. This is one of the year’s best films.

Roger Ebert