Run Run Shaw's first film as producer was a groundbreaking collaboration between Shaw Brothers and Japan's Daiei Films. In one of his final films, legendary filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, 1953) brings grand visuals and a carefully restrained style to his interpretation of this classic tale about a king who had to choose between his beauty or his kingdom. Framed around the memories of a grieving Emperor Xuan Zong (Masayuki Mori), this tragic love story begins with the encounter between him and Yuhuan (Machiko Kyo), a beautiful woman who would later become concunbine Yang Kwei Fei. Mizoguchi creates a contrast against the story's epic scale and strong dramatic tension by creating a melancholic atmosphere. Depicted as a martyr who retains her sophistication and compassion even in the face of death, Mizoguchi's version of Princess Yang is refreshingly different from the Princess Yang that lives in Chinese history books.

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