A breathtakingly intimate romance unfolds against a sweeping backdrop of social upheaval in renowned director Chen Kaige's sumptuous saga of passion, fate, and the transcendent possibilities of art. Spanning fifty years of twentieth-century Chinese history, Farewell My Concubine follows aspiring actors Dieyi and Xiaolou as they emerge from a childhood of brutal training to become Beijing-opera stars, with life mirroring art as Dieyi's unrequited love for Xiaolou and the country's changing political tides engulf them in their own personal tragedies of jealousy and betrayal.