Time Out Shanghai's 100 Best Mainland Chinese Films
Source: http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Books__Film-Film_features/18353/The-100-best-Mainland-Chinese-Films-the-full-list.html
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- DirectorKaige ChenStarsLeslie CheungFengyi ZhangGong LiTwo boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.
- DirectorMu FeiStarsChaoming CuiWei LiYu ShiA lonely housewife finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsWen JiangKenya SawadaHongbo JiangVillagers in World War II China are unsure what to do with the two enemy prisoners who have been left in their care.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsYu XiaWei ChenShaobo DaiBeijing, 1970s. Now that the CR has driven most adults to the provinces, 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery referred to as "girls."
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangHongjian HaoBaitao ZuoA small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
- DirectorWang BingThe impact of the decline of heavy industry on workers and their families in the Tiexi district of Shenyang, China, at the turn of the 21st century, documented unflinchingly by a fly-on-the-wall camera.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsXueqi WangBai XueQuiang LiuA communist soldier travels to Shanbei to collect folk songs for propaganda while visiting a poor peasant family, giving hope to the teenage daughter in escaping an arranged marriage.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsYou GeGong LiBen NiuAfter Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.
- DirectorYonggang WuStarsLingyu RuanTian JianZhizhi ZhangStreet walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China.
- DirectorMuzhi YuanStarsDan ZhaoHeling WeiXuan ZhouIn old Shanghai, two sisters, a prostitute and a singer, tried to escape from the local scoundrels with the help of a trumpet player and a newspaper seller.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoZhou LanSanming HanA town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiWen JiangRujun TengWhen a leprous winery owner in 1930s China dies a few days after his arranged marriage, his young widow is forced to run the winery to make a living while contending with bandits, her drunkard lover, and the invading Japanese army.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiJingwu MaSaifei HeChina in the 1920s. After her father's death, Songlian is forced to marry the wealthy Master Chen. With three wives already, each living in a separate house, there is fierce competition for his attention and the privileges that are gained.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianStarsTian YiWenyao ZhangXiaoman ChenThe lives of a Beijing family throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as they experience the impact of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
- DirectorYang LiStarsYixiang LiBaoqiang WangShuangbao WangTwo coal miners and conmen looking for their next murder victim decide on a naïve country boy desperately looking for a job.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangTao ZhaoLiang JingdongA theatre troupe from rural Fenyang struggles under the decline of communism and rise of popular culture in China in the 1980s.
- DirectorYe LouStarsXun ZhouHongsheng JiaZhongkai HuaAfter getting out of prison, small-time crook Mardar stumbles upon a woman who looks exactly like his long-lost lover.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsWen JiangJoan ChenAnthony Chau-Sang WongJiang Wen stars in his third directorial work that boasts a stellar cast including Joan Chen, Anthony Wong and Jaycee Chan. A polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones, shifting between a Yunnan village, a campus, and the Gobi Desert.
- DirectorJin XieStarsWen JiangLinian LiuXiaoqing LiuLove, humiliation, and politics play out in a distant village of China during the Cultural Revolution.
- DirectorYe LouStarsLei HaoXiaodong GuoXueyun BaiYu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
- DirectorYimou ZhangFengliang YangStarsGong LiWei LiBaotian LiIn rural China, the young bride of a tyrannical owner of a silk-dyeing business finds temporary solace in the arms of her husband's nephew, but problems arise when she becomes pregnant.
- DirectorFei XieStarsWen JiangCheng LinHong YueA semi-literate who was deprived of schooling during the Cultural Revolution, Li Huiquan, is released from labor camp. But his attempts to make good are continually thwarted. His street stall selling clothes puts him on the fringe of the black market, and he soon gets lured back into his old neighbourhood gangs. His disenchanted comrades include a nightclub chanteuse as well as an escaped convict.
- DirectorWan LaimingCheng TangStarsYue-Feng QiuRun-Sheng FuHans AlfredsonSun Wukong, the King of the Monkeys, sets off on his first adventure to gain a worthy weapon. This earns the attention of the Jade Emperor of Heaven.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianPeicheng PanStarsRigzin TseshangJiji DanDaibaA Tibetan man struggles to provide for his family.
- DirectorLiang ZhaoStarsZhang WeiyeXiao YuanIt is a fantastic documentary about Chinese govt's systemic oppression and persecution toward ordinary folk who petition the government.
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuDaily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic proportions in this, intimate portrait, with unprecedented access, of a working-class Chinese family.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsChow Yun-FatWen JiangYou GeIn 1920s China, a bandit arrives in a remote provincial town posing as its new mayor, where he faces off against a tyrannical local nobleman.
- DirectorNing HaoStarsTao GuoTeddy LinHua LiuWhat do you get when you have a precious jewel, a group of bumbling thieves intent on getting their hands on it, the mob wanting a piece of the action, and a loyal but mischievous security guard all thrown together? Crazy Stone. It's a fast paced, wisecracking caper comedy that will have you engaged and entertained from the word go. This is China's answer to Ocean's Eleven, with many comic twists and turns thrown in for good measure.
- DirectorYu SunStarsYan JinYanyan ChenLi-li LiSix young men from the city take jobs on a road crew, building a highway of strategic importance to the Chinese Army. The story relates the men's interactions with each other, the local community, and two friendly and flirtatious young local girls who become part of their circle. Meanwhile, their hard work is countered by a traitorous foreman bribed by Japanese agents to sabotage the road.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsJet LiTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungA defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWei Wei ZhaoQiong WuTao ZhaoTwo unemployed Chinese teenagers have trouble resisting the temptations of the Western world.
- DirectorYue LüStarsZhihua ZhangJingming ShiYi'nan ChenThe psychology in this triangle situation focuses on a Shanghai university professor, his factory worker wife, and a young female former student who becomes his mistress.
- DirectorShuqin HuangStarsShouli XuBaotian LiQilin JiThe fictional life and career of a famous actress in Chinese opera, a woman who goes against tradition by specializing in playing male roles, especially that of Zhang Kui, a benevolent ghost who appears in several Chinese operas. Although the actress's career brings wealth and fame, it is attained only through considerable struggle against an anti-female system and an unhappy personal life.
- DirectorNuanxing ZhangStarsFengxu LiYuanzheng FengTao SongA young girl from the city is sent out to work in a village of Dai people in China's cultural revolution. Here she learns to enjoy being young and gains a new outlook on life.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsYuan XieXuewen YangShaohua ChenThis film is adapted from the novel of Ah Cheng. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a young man is assigned to teach in village school.
- DirectorChangwei GuStarsJing AnLi FengChangwei GuChina in the late 1970s and early 1980s: the life of an ordinary working family as seen through its three siblings.
- DirectorYe LouStarsHao QinSicheng ChenWei WuHired to spy on a philandering husband, Luo Haitao soon becomes entangled in a clandestine affair with the other man. Along with Luo's girlfriend, they succumb to the delirium of drunken nights, but how long can their tryst last?
- DirectorHui ShiStarsHui ShiHeling WeiYang ShenFifty years of modern Chinese history (1900-1950), including wars, revolutions and corrupt politics, as seen through the life and times of a simple Beijing policeman and his family.
- DirectorJunli ZhengStarsDan ZhaoYinyan WuDaolin SunA story of a corrupt party official who attempts to sell an apartment building he has appropriated from the original owner and the struggles of the tenants to prevent themselves being thrown onto the street.
- DirectorJianxin HuangYazhou YangStarsZhenhua NiuKesheng LeiQiang LiWang Shuangli is Deputy Director of the local Cultural Centre, and hopes to be appointed Director. However Old Ma is brought in from the country and installed as Director. This starts a long train of events with Wang's cronies using the bureaucracy to try to oust the new director. At home, Wang has problems because his father wants Wang to have a son to carry on the family name. However, because of the one-child policy, Wang cannot have any more children unless his young daughter is certified infirm.
- DirectorChusheng CaiJunli ZhengStarsYang BaiJin TaoYinyan Wu1930's China. The village of a poor family is taken over by the occupying Japanese army. One son, Zhongliang, leaves his wife and young son to join a medic group for the Chinese Army. The other son, Zhangmin goes into hiding to protect his family. The focus shifts back and forth from the brothers' parents and Zhongliang's wife and son to Zhongliang's newfound life of luxury in a town not too far away. The plight of Zhongliang's mother, his wife, Sufan and her son, Kongeson is contrasted with Zhongliang's rise in a flourishing company.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiPeiqi LiuLiuchun YangA peasant woman seeks justice after the headman of her village has kicked her husband in the groin.
- DirectorShuchen WangJingda XuDing Xian YanStarsKe BiBanjô GingaDaisuke GôriTells the fable from Chinese mythology about the young warrior Nezha who takes on a group of evil dragons.
- DirectorMing ZhangStarsXiu JiangBing LiShengguo WangMai Qiang is a 30-year old bachelor, withdrawn, with little in his life besides his job at an isolated signal station along the Yangtze River and his ink drawings he uses as toilet paper. Chen Qing is a hotel clerk, a widow with a young child and an undemanding relationship with her boss Lao Mo. Lao believes she has been raped, so he reports the crime to Wu Gang, the neighborhood cop. Wu investigates, but Chen is uncooperative. Lao then identifies Mai, who is detained and questioned. After Wu gets to the truth of the incident, Mai tries to break out of his loneliness and connect to Chen.
- DirectorChuan LuStarsYe LiuWei FanHideo NakaizumiIn 1937, Japan occupied Nanjing, the Chinese capital. There was a battle and subsequent atrocities against the inhabitants, especially those who took refuge in the International Security Zone.
- DirectorYang ZhangStarsJiayi DuZheng FangBing HeA young wealthy businessman's icy attitude toward his working-class background is about to thaw as he is forced to reconnect with his elderly father and mentally challenged younger brother, who together run a public bathhouse.
- DirectorTieli XieStarsDaolin SunFang XieYunzhu ShangguanJianqiu is a high school teacher and sympathizes Mrs. Wen, a widow whose husband was Jianqiu's schoolmate and died in the Guangzhou Uprising. Jianqiu and Lan fall in love, but Jianqiu decides to marry Mrs. Wen.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsYou GeXiaogang FengPei LiuFour friends come up with an unusual idea to make some money and have fun doing it. For a small fee, they will impersonate and act out any character role for their customers. In the course of executing this novel service, they encounter a whole spectrum of people in society, finding ways to genuinely help them boost their morale and overcome their fears, while gaining unusual and new insights into the human condition.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWu JiangBaoqiang WangTao ZhaoFour independent stories set in modern China about random acts of violence.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsLin CuiXun ZhouBin LiA seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsJianbin ChenJoan ChenLiping LüWhen a factory is being torn down in Chengdu, China, workers reflect on their experiences and the importance of the factory in their lives.
- DirectorHu SangStarsHui ShiJiachen ZhuYang ShenIn pre-communist China, a widowed school principal must take care of his three children and a girl left behind his deceased old friend. When he retires, he finds himself bored and neglected by his children until he returns to school.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsXiaodong LiuYe LouHong YuThe Days is Wang Xiaoshuai's 1993 debut. Filmed in black-and-white, The Days follows the life of two married artists who have graduated from the Beijing Art Institute.
- DirectorJiashan MiStarsGuoli ZhangHong PanTian LiangFor anyone with tricky personal troubles - marital and professional Yu Guan and his buddies have a new business that will provide the solution, from taking the abuse of a man's nagging wife to showering an obscure writer with awards.
- DirectorChusheng CaiStarsLingyu RuanNaidong WangJunli ZhengOvernight, the sexy Wei Ming will become a successful novelist. But, desperate to get the money that she needs to cure her little daughter (and harassed by a rich, unscrupulous rake), she will end up eventually engage in luxury prostitution.
- DirectorYigong WuStarsJie ShenMin ZhangFengyi ZhangYingzi is a young, impressionable girl living on the southern side of Beijing in the late 1920s. Encountering people in the city, she tries to understand how people are really like inside through her own eyes.
- DirectorShuo WangStarsXiaogang FengXiaopei HuFan XuA middle-aged man raises his son all by himself. He works as the chairman of the labor union and acts the way of putting on airs and cocky style both at work and home. He tries to build good relations with son but it does not work.
- DirectorYing NingStarsZongluo HuangWenjie HuangShanxu HanA charming story of a group of senior citizens who set up a Peking Opera club in hopes of finding revitalization through singing and dancing.
- DirectorLiang YingStarsXiaopei LiuJie WangYun XuA 17 year old boy from a village in the Sechuan province leaves for the big city looking for his father, who left 6 years before and has not been heard of since. The fact that his mother still receives money his father does nothing to tame his anger. He his not looking for a warm reunion, it is unconcealed revenge that drives him. Totally lost, he roams the big city with his basket of ducks on his back...
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuThe director shows herself and her parents making dumplings in their apartment with nine fixed camera positions, with which she revolves around the kitchen table.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsWen JiangBaotian LiYing QuA spurned lover seeks a rich man for revenge. A random onlooker -- who witnessed the public assault committed by the rich man against the lover -- seeks for monetary compensation for his smashed computer. The lover's and the onlooker's lives intertwine as two people collaborate. The onlooker's fate faces an unpredictable turn and mirrors the lover's life.
- DirectorJin XieStarsQiwei CaoQiong LiuYi Qin"Woman Basketball Player No. 5" not only explores the problems that a young female athlete faces in coming to grips with her ambitions in the field of sports, it portrays the fate of two different generations of Chinese athletes, one pre- and the other post-Liberation.
- DirectorYe LouStarsZiyi ZhangTôru NakamuraYe LiuCynthia is a young Chinese woman in love with Itami, a Japanese man about to be sent home for military service.
- DirectorYing NingStarsLi JianLiu Ying ShuLiangui WangTake crime out of police work, and what's left is procedures. In the western sector of Beijing, we follow the tedium of police officers. A rabid dog is loose in Guoli's beat: a gang of police officers hunts it down. Then, word comes from on high to pick up all the dogs in the sector: fear of rabies combines with the dogs' being status symbols of the nouveau riche. Occasionally a criminal is picked up: someone selling porn, someone running a three-card-monte game. Cops smoke, go to meetings, and hold trainings. They patrol on bicycles and enforce edicts. Guoli works nights. He's lazy at home, his wife wants him to do more. Is there any more to do?
- DirectorPema TsedenStarsDobe DorjeDrolma GyabManla KyabA filmmaker searches the Himalayas for an actor and actress to play the lead roles in his Tibetan opera.
- DirectorChuan LuStarsWen JiangYujuan WuXiao-Fan WangSmall-town policeman Ma Shan wakes up one morning to discover that his gun is missing. During his search, things take a sinister turn when his first love turns up dead and the bullet appears to be from his gun.
- DirectorSu LiStarsWanqiu HuangZongxue XiaJu-ke ZhangThis is the first musical film in China which tells the story of Liu San Jie (Liu the Third Sister), a legendary folk female singer of Zhuang minority in Guangxi Autonomous Region.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoTaishen ChengJue JingAn exploration on the impact of urbanization and globalization on a traditional culture.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsAndy LauRene LiuBaoqiang WangA con-team couple (Andy Lau & Rene Liu) head west after taking a city businessman for his BMW. But an encounter with a naive young carpenter travelling home with his life savings challenges their fate as thieves.
- DirectorJianxin HuangStarsZifeng LiuMing GaoGerhard OlschewskiEngineer Zhao Shuxin likes playing chess a lot. Once during his business trip, he loses a black cannon chessman which leads to unexpected consequences for him.
- DirectorHongqi LiStarsJinfeng BaiLei BaoHui WangAn ordinary village in Northern China, the last day of the winter vacation. Four idle, aimless adolescents gather at Zhou Zhixin's home, a friend who lives with his father, brother and nephew. Like most contemporary teenagers, these youths want to enjoy their last day of holiday and simply hang out in this place where nothing ever seems likely to happen. Their conversations are desultory and they sometimes seem to argue for argument's sake. One of them, Laowu, talks frankly with his girlfriend about how teenage love might affect their studies, while Laobao questions school's value and relevance to real life.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsZiyi ZhangTakeshi KaneshiroAndy LauA romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsYou GeShu QiWei FanAfter making a killing, Fen returns to China a rich man. After seeking a wife on internet, he meets many women but only likes air hostess Liang/Shu Qi, who's in love with a married man and only wants friendship.
- DirectorShangjun CaiStarsJianbin ChenHong TaoXiubo WuA man is tracking down the murderer of his brother and this journey in many places made him facing his own troubles.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsJingchun WangWenqing LiuGuo Liuxing Zhong11-year-old Wang lives with his family in a remote village in China. Life is tough, but they make the most of what little they have. When Wang is selected to lead his school's daily gymnastics, his teacher recommends that he wear a new shirt, which forces his family to make a great sacrifice. Soon after, Wang encounters a wounded man on the run and their fates are intertwined.
- DirectorCong Feng
- DirectorWeikai HuangFootage collected from a dozen amateur videographers woven into a unique city symphony of social dysfunction.
- DirectorYuan ZhangStarsSi HanJun HuJing YeBefore the 1990s P.R.China criminalized the LGBT population. Without family law and marriage law for the LGBT couples, many had to secretly encounter for sexual activities with the risk of police arrests.
- DirectorShuchen WangYunda QianStarsJianhua DingKe BiXiu SuYuangong, the deacon, opened the shrine and exposed the holy book to the human world. He also carved the contents of the book on the stone wall of white cloud cave in the mountains. He is now punished to guard the book for life by the jade emperor for breaking heaven's law and betraying the holy secret to human. In order to pass this holy book to human beings, he would have to get by the antagonist fox.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsHanyu ZhangChao DengWenkang YuanA soldier fights to gain recognition for comrades who died during the Chinese Civil War.
- DirectorHu SangStarsTianliu JiangFa ZhangZhen LinAfter setting up a new company with his father-in-law's money, a man neglects his supportive wife for a seductive gold digger.
- DirectorChoui KhouaStarsTian XieBin LinWei MaA textile store in Zhejiang province encounters a series of trouble when the Japanese invade China and the war breaks out.
- DirectorXin XuThe film opens on the morning of December 8th 2007, in Karamay's Xiaoxihu cemetery. Daybreak casts a cold grey light over faraway mountains and the Gobi sands. As the camera moves from grave to grave, it zeroes in on the photographs encased in glass on every tombstone. All are of children. Exactly 13 years ago, Karamay's Friendship Hall was the site of a horrible tragedy: nearly 800 grade and middle-school students and their teachers, hand-picked to entertain a delegation of education officials, were in the midst of a performance when a fire broke out in the hall. The students were instructed to remain in their seats so that the visiting executives could exit first. By the time the fire had been contained, 323 people had perished, 288 of them children between the ages of 6 and 14. All of the officials survived. After the tragedy, the story was heavily censored in the Chinese state media. To this day, the families of Karamay have not been allowed to publicly mourn their children.
- DirectorWan LaimingGuchan WanStarsGuanxiang LiuChen ZhengfaZhou JirangThree travelers needing to pass through a fiery mountain seek the magical fan of a princess, but she does not wish to part with it.
- DirectorTong XuLi Baicheng is a charismatic fortune teller who services a clientele of prostitutes and marginalized figures whose jobs, like his, are commonplace but technically illegal in China. He practices his ancient craft in a village near Beijing while taking care of his deaf and dumb wife Pearl, who he rescued from her family's mistreatment. Winter brings a police crackdown on both fortune tellers and prostitutes, forcing Li and Pearl into temporary exile in his hometown, where he revisits old family demons. His humble story is told with chapter headings similar to Qing Dynasty popular fiction.
- DirectorHu GuanStarsHuang BoNi YanTielong ShangA Chinese peasant is given the responsibility of protecting his village's special dairy cow during a particularly harsh winter in 1940.
- DirectorXiaowen ZhouStarsLiya AiPeiqi LiuZhijun GeA woman gets obsessed with buying a television for her family.
- DirectorJian FanIn the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, 5,335 students were killed. As China has one-child policy, the earthquake took away the only child of many families. This film is about a mother -Ye Hongmei and her friends' different fate of having a new baby Ye Hongmei, 40-year-old, started her second IVF treatment to get pregnant. Her 8-year-old daughter was killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Refusing to come to terms with the reality, Ye believes that giving birth to another girl would mean the return of her gone daughter. So pregnancy becomes an ordeal for her. Then she has to bear extraordinary pains: she travels 50 miles every day just to receive injections and blood tests. Can she make it?
- DirectorChusheng CaiStarsRenmei WangLangen HanPeng LuoAbout the trials and tribulations of the family of a poor fisherman.
- DirectorYonggang WuStarsYan JinZhizhi ZhangReturning home from a long voyage overseas, a man finds his wife and child living with another man. Fuelled by anger, he murders the other man and is forced to flee justice, until he faces death on a deserted island.
- DirectorJohnnie ToStarsLouis KooHonglei SunYi HuangA drug cartel boss who is arrested in a raid is coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.
- DirectorLixin FanStarsChanghua ZhangYang ZhangSuqin ChenA couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.
- DirectorPing HeStarsWei GaoMana ZhaoJiang ChangA teenage lad arrives at Double Flag Town to claim his betrothed bride, when he encounters a group of outlaws and kills one of them. A vendetta is expected.
- DirectorYuan ZhangStarsJian CuiWen LiBian TianshuoA rock musician looks for his girl-friend who left while pregnant, trying to decide whether to keep the baby.
- DirectorLi YinStarsDanping ShenZeru TaoGuoli ZhangBefore the Beijing Asian Games in 1990, a group of elementary school kids compete for the chance to participate in a martial arts performance for the opening ceremony. In this coming-of-age story, kind-hearted An Jianjun pursues his dreams through sweat and tears, friendship and betrayal. The comedy depicts Beijing locals in precise, humorous, and loving detail.
- DirectorKuo-Fu ChenQunshu GaoStarsXun ZhouBingbing LiHanyu ZhangFollowing a series of assassination attempts on officials of the Japanese-controlled puppet government in 1942 Nanjingn (Nanking), the Japanese spy chief gathers a group of suspects in a mansion house for questioning. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese code-breaker attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.