Farewell My Concubine () is a 1993 Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige which depicts the effects of various Chinese political turmoils during the 20th century on a Peking opera troupe. The film is one of the central works of the Fifth Generation movement that brought the Chinese film directors of that period to world attention. Like several other Fifth Generation films, Farewell My Concubine explores the effect of China's turbulent political landscape during the mid-20th century on human lives. In this case, the lives are those of two Peking opera performers and the woman who comes between them. The film is an adaptation of the novel by Lilian Lee. ==Synopsis== In 1977, the year after the end of the Cultural Revolution, two men in Beijing Opera costumes, one in a female role, the other as a stage king, enter the performance hall and are greeted by a voice off camera -- they haven't performed in seven years -- and a single spot light falls on them. The scene, now shot in sepia, cuts to 1924. A woman walks hurriedly with a small child in her arms through a crowded Chinese market. A man tries to speak to her but she roughly pushes him off as he shouts,"Whore!" A crowd is watching a troupe of boys from a Beijing opera training school perform for coins in the street, supervised by their aging director, Master Guan. One of the boys, Laizi, tries to run away, and the crowd is insulted. One of the troupe, Shitou [Stone], shames the crowd by breaking a stone on his head, as the crowd cheers. Jump cut to Douzi in full costume at an elaborate stage in front of a large audience in an elaborate private pavillion of the aging Eunuch Zhang, who admires him and his talent. Douzi and Shitou, sing the famous duets and the audience roars. (via Wikipedia)