Farewell My Concubine ending explained

What happens

In 1977, Dieyi and Xiaolou meet in an empty theatre and rehearse their old play. At the final moment, Dieyi takes Xiaolou's sword and kills himself, as Yu Ji does. He ends his life inside the role.

The last image

Dieyi, in his stage costume, falls in the empty theatre while Xiaolou looks on.

What it says

Dieyi never separated the stage from his own devotion, so the part he was made for becomes his death. The ending shows a man shaped, then consumed, by a role that others wrote for him.