General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Princess Yang Kwei-Fei (楊貴妃)

Princess Yang Kwei-Fei (楊貴妃, Yōkihi) is a 1955 historical drama directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, a co-production between Japan's Daiei Studios and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers that retells the Tang-dynasty story of Emperor Xuanzong and his consort Yang Guifei. It was Mizoguchi's first color film, the first Japanese-Hong Kong co-production, and the first film produced by Run Run Shaw.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Director / year	Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955; his first color film, shot in Eastmancolor³
Production	Daiei Studios (Tokyo) and Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong); producers Masaichi Nagata and Run Run Shaw²
Source	Based on the Tang poet Bai Juyi's poem "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" (長恨歌)⁴
Cast	Machiko Kyō as Yang Kwei-fei (Yuhuan), Masayuki Mori as Emperor Xuanzong, Sō Yamamura as An Lushan⁵
Key crew	Screenwriters Doe Ching, Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Yoshikata Yoda, and Masashige Narusawa; cinematography Kohei Sugiyama; music Fumio Hayasaka²
Release	Japan, 3 May 1955; 98 minutes (some prints run 91 minutes)⁴^•⁶
Recognition	Nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice in 1955; Mainichi Film Concourse awards for music and best color production⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Story and source

The film is set in eighth-century China. The widowed Emperor Xuanzong (Masayuki Mori) mourns his late wife and devotes himself to composing music, indifferent to the beauties brought to court.⁶ The ambitious general An Lushan (Sō Yamamura) notices Yuhuan (Machiko Kyō), a young woman working in the Yang family kitchen, and has her presented to the emperor, who falls in love with her; she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei.⁵^•⁴ The emperor then places Yang family members in important court positions, and the ministers misuse their power so badly that a popular revolt breaks out, fueled by An Lushan, who has not received the court position he wanted.⁵ To buy the protection of his Imperial Guards, the emperor must make a dear sacrifice, and Yang gives her life to save him.⁵^•⁹ In the final scenes the aged emperor is mystically reunited with his deceased wife as a spirit.¹⁰

The screenplay adapts Bai Juyi's ninth-century poem "Song of Everlasting Sorrow," and the story of Yang Guifei had been retold in Japan since the ninth century as an established classical literary theme.⁴^•⁸ The English title is itself misleading: Yang is the woman's family name and "Kwei Fei" (guifei) is an honorific for the leading imperial concubine, so the central character is neither an empress nor a princess.¹¹

Production

The project originated with Daiei's president Masaichi Nagata, who hoped for a bigger international audience, and with the Shaw Brothers, who wanted the cultural cachet of Mizoguchi's name after the international success of Ugetsu (1953).¹^•¹² The Hong Kong screenwriter Doe Ching (Tao Qin) wrote a first version based on Bai Juyi's poem, which Kawaguchi, Yoda, and Narusawa then rewrote for Mizoguchi.⁴ The film was shot in Japan with a Japanese crew, using the Eastmancolor process that Daiei had been actively researching, and Chinese historical consultant Lu Shih-hou worked with art director Hiroshi Mizutani on the settings.³^•¹³

Mizoguchi's screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda recorded in his memoir that his original, historically based conception of Yang, which he described in terms of her pride and egoism, was transformed during production into an innocent melodrama heroine, to the extent that Yoda felt alienated from the project and the final version of the screenplay was completed by another writer.¹¹

Style

The National Film Archive of Japan describes the film as a melodrama rather than an accurate historical reconstruction, portraying Yang as a tragic heroine who falls prey to the political ambitions of her opportunistic family.³ The Hong Kong Film Archive notes Mizoguchi's restrained treatment: he favors quiet grief over exaggerated dramatic tension, frames the story around the grieving emperor's memories, and gives the princess's death a dignity that differs from the Yang of Chinese history books.² The BFI highlights the ornate costumes and sets and Kohei Sugiyama's sumptuous cinematography, and the French critic Jean Domarchi, writing in Cahiers du Cinéma in 1959, praised the delicacy of the muted color tones.¹²^•¹⁴

Reception and legacy

On its completion the film was considered a failure: the Chinese setting alienated Mizoguchi's followers in Japan and abroad, and its emphasis on poetry over spectacle disappointed the Shaw Brothers.¹ It nevertheless received awards for music and best color production at the 1955 Mainichi Film Concourse, and it has since been championed by critics and audiences for its tale of the ill-fated love between Emperor Xuanzong and the serving girl he makes his concubine.⁸^•¹

The co-production opened a path that others followed: it paved the way for the Toho and Shaw Brothers period fantasy Madame White Snake (1956), and it marked the start of a series of Japanese co-productions with Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers instigated by Nagata.¹⁵^•¹² The film is available on streaming services including the Criterion Channel.¹⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › Historical dramas and epics › Titles M to Z › Titles M to Sa

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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