Princess Yang Kwei-fei

In eighth-century China, Emperor Xuan Zong is overcome by grief after the death of his wife, and the court around him looks for a way to draw him out of his sorrow. The Yang family hopes to strengthen its own influence at court by supplying him with a new companion, and General An Lushan, one of the figures close to the throne, finds a distant relative of the family working as a servant in their kitchen. She is brought before the Emperor, who is struck by her resemblance to his late wife, and she becomes Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs gain high offices, but An Lushan is denied the position he wants, and resentment builds.

Kenji Mizoguchi directed the film, which followed his dramas The Life of Oharu, Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff and Chikamatsu Monogatari in a remarkable run of work from the early 1950s. Machiko Kyō plays the title role, with Masayuki Mori as the Emperor, Sō Yamamura as An Lushan and Eitarō Shindō, Eitarō Ozawa and Haruko Sugimura among the supporting cast. The screenplay was written by Doe Ching, Matsutarō Kawaguchi and Masashige Narusawa, and the production was a Hong Kong-Japanese co-production involving Daiei Film and Shaw and Sons.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.1 from around 2,200 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.7 from a much smaller number of votes, suggesting a solid reputation among viewers who have sought it out.