1990年，桑弧导演了他的收山之作——京剧艺术片《曹操与杨修》，《曹操与杨修》取材于《三国演义》第七十二回“诸葛亮智取汉中 曹阿瞒兵退斜谷”，该剧通过曹操与杨修两者的性格冲突来体现作品的深层意蕴。这是中国历史上封建权势人格与文人智能人格难以调和酿成的悲剧。该剧在三国演义原著的基础上，增加了误杀孔闻岱，曹操守灵杀妻等情节，是曹操与杨修结仇的根源。

A man who becomes wealthy starts to have an affair and though his wife knows of it, she says nothing. Soon, the affair starts to have consequences and his business falls apart while the man’s sister starts to have a relationship with the brother of his wife.

In pre-communism China, a widowed man falls in love with a young colleague who's the same age as his own children.