Chen Kaige’s resplendent fifth feature film is a far-reaching portrait of half a century of Chinese history. The film presents the story of two men, Peking opera performers Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi), and their lifelong entanglement with one another within the throes of political turmoil from the 1930s to the 1970s. Starting as young trainees in a traditional opera troupe, the lives of Dieyi and Xiaolou are forever linked not only by their signature onstage roles as concubine and hero but also with unresolved jealousy and betrayal when Xiaolou marries the courtesan Juxian (Gong Li). A film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Lillian Lee and winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993, Farewell to My Concubine conveys real-world pathos as though life is to be played onstage.

Chen Kaige (b.1952, Beijing) is a leading Chinese director. Along with Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Zhang Junzhao, Chen graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 as part of what would become known as the Fifth Generation filmmakers. Chen’s early films about village life, such as Yellow Earth (1984) and King of the Children (1987), demonstrated his ability for sweeping narratives with intimate character studies and naturalistic, painterly mise-en-scène. Aside from the award-winning Farewell to My Concubine (1993), Chen is also known for the period drama Temptress Moon (1996) and historical epics such as The Promise (2005).