Princess Yang Kwei-fei

In eighth-century China, Yang Kwei-fei (Machiko Kyō) is a kitchen girl, a distant relative of a powerful family, until its members groom her to console the widowed Emperor Xuan Zong (Masayuki Mori). The Yangs want influence at court, and General An Lushan (So Yamamura) wants the position they will not give him. Mizoguchi follows her as the Emperor falls in love and she becomes a princess, with a family's ambitions riding on her.