Sorrows of the Forbidden City/Secrets of The Qing Court(清宫秘史)

Director: Zhu Shilin
Screenwriter: Yao Ke
Starring: Tang Ruoqing
          Zhou Xuan
          Shu Shi
          Hong Bo
Release Year:1948
Studio:Hong Kong Yonghua Film Studio

Sorrows of the Forbidden City, produced by Hong Kong Yonghua Film Studio is a film of historical theme. It depicts the political and historical upheaval in the last years of the Qing Dynasty.

In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Guangxu attempts to launch a reform movement that is quickly crushed by his aunt, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who holds the real power. Beyond the undeniable artistic qualities that make it one of the masterpieces of post-war Hong Kong cinema, Sorrows of the Forbidden City is a film with true historical significance. Regarded as anti-progressive, it was labeled "a betrayal of the nation" by Mao Zedong in 1954, and then attacked in an essay published nearly 20 years after its release, at the very beginning of the Cultural Revolution.