Farewell My Concubine is a literary film produced by Tomson Films Ltd, adapted from the novel of the same name by Li Bihua, directed by Chen Kaige, written by Li Bihua and Reed, and starring Leslie Cheung, Gong Li and Zhang Fengyi.

The film centers on two Peking opera artists' half-century of sorrows and joys, showing their thoughts and understanding of traditional culture, human existence and human nature.

The film was released in 1993 in mainland China and Hong Kong, and has since been screened in a number of countries and regions around the world, and has broken the box office record for a mainland Chinese literary film in the U.S.

The film is based on the novel by Li Bihua, directed by Chen Kaige, and written by Li Bihua and Reed.

In the winter of 1924, nine-year-old Douzi enters the Guan family theater troupe to learn opera after her prostitute mother cuts off the deformed finger on her left hand. The only person in the troupe who sympathized with Little Douzi was his senior brother, Xiao Shi Tou, who took care of him.

Ten years later, under Master Guan's harsh and cruel guidance, the two brothers quickly improved their acting skills, with Little Douzi taking the stage name Cheng Dieyi and playing the Dan role, and Little Stone taking the stage name Duan Xiaolou and playing the Sheng role. The two acted together in "Farewell My Concubine", which was well received in the capital, and the two brothers became very popular. They agreed to perform Farewell My Concubine for the rest of their lives.

Duan Xiaolou married the prostitute Juxian as his wife, attached to his brother's Dieyi, with a heavy heart, came to his brother's place, and gave Xiaolou the valuable sword he had traded for humiliation, which his brother had been longing for, and decided not to co-star with Xiaolou in "Farewell My Concubine" any more. At Master Guan's beck and call, the master-brother duo worked together again.

After the end of the war, the two were forced to sing for a group of undisciplined and unqualified soldiers of the National Army. Duan Xiaolou clashed with the soldiers, and in the confusion, Ju Xian had a miscarriage, while some soldiers later arrested Dieyi for the crime of being a traitor. Duan Xiaolou tries his best to rescue Dieyi and begs Yuan Shiqing, a bureaucrat who used to toy with Dieyi, in a low voice.

Juxian asks Dieyi to lie and beg for her release, and shows Dieyi a note that Xiaolou will no longer sing with her. But Dieyi is rescued by a senior KMT official because of her skills.

After the liberation, their skills were not taken seriously. Cheng Dieyi, who had tasted opium by mistake, suffered from poor voice and broke her voice in a performance. She was determined to get clean, and after going through the ordeal of drug addiction, she finally regained her strength with the help of the husband and wife of Duan Xiaolou, but was framed by Xiaosi, a child who had been adopted out of goodwill in the same year.

Small four forced to replace him Yu Ji position with Duan Xiaolou performance, Duan Xiaolou regardless of the consequences of the strike, Ju Xian for the sake of the big picture to persuade him to play, Duan Xiaolou finally performed. Dieyi was heartbroken, and has since broken off relations with Duan Xiaolou.

Then Duan Xiaolou was framed by Xiaosi and forced to frame Dieyi. Duan Xiaolou refused to do so and was paraded through the streets, when Dieyi suddenly appeared, dressed as Yu Ji, willing to be humiliated together with Duan Xiaolou.

Duan Xiaolou sees that Dieyi has thrown himself into a trap, and hopes to protect Juxian, but he has no choice but to frame Dieyi, even calling him a traitor, and Dieyi is devastated by the news.

Seeing that the one he resented, Juxian, was now pitying him and helping him, Duan Xiaolou vented all his anger on Juxian and revealed that Juxian had been a whore, and Duan Xiaolou was forced to make a clean break with Juxian and said that he had never loved her, and Juxian hanged himself in despair.

The ending of the two brothers on the stage after 22 years of separation for the last time together in the "Farewell My Concubine", Yu Ji sang the last line, he gave the king of the sword filled with his feelings and fantasies of the sword to kill himself, Dieyi in the arms of his senior brother Xiaolou, the end of their own acting career, but also the end of this brilliant tragedy.