Cheng Dieyi in the story is fascinated by drama, and the phrase "Don't be crazy, don't live" is the spiritual portrayal of Cheng Dieyi people's integration into drama. Cheng Dieyi, played by Leslie Cheung, was born only for drama. He doesn't care whether the times are changing or not, nor does he care about hatred at home and abroad. He only knows how to sing like a madman. Duan Xiaolou commented on him and said, "You have known to sing all your life, and you don't come out to see what plays have been sung in this world." . He just wants to sing for people who can enjoy opera at the Opera House. He just wants to spread China's operas. His life is stubborn and pure.
Duan Xiaolou plays the overlord Xiang Yu in the play, but he is a fake overlord. He knows that the stage is the stage, life is life, and times are changing. Duan Xiaolou is actually very realistic. He doesn't live in his own world like Cheng Dieyi. He knows that current events are changing, and he knows to be flexible.
Farewell My Concubine tells the tragic story of Wang Ba and his concubine who committed suicide in Wujiang River before their death, and it is also the tragic story of Wang Ba and his concubine's life played by Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi. Their lives are like drama, and drama is like life. The change of the times ended the relationship between Farewell My Concubine, and also caused the emotional entanglement between Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi to be a tragedy.
The story told in Farewell My Concubine is also conveying to people a spirit that the director wants to praise, and a pure feeling of keeping one's heart under the oppression of the times. Cheng Dieyi in the film is such a pure representative, while Duan Xiaolou is the representative of realism. At the same time, the director also left us a question, what should people do right under the changes of the times? What is left to us is more thinking about life and the times.