In 1942, Henan Province was devastated by one of the most tragic famines in modern Chinese history, resulting in the deaths of at least three million men, women and children. Although the primary cause of the famine was a severe drought, it was exacerbated by locusts, windstorms, earthquakes, epidemic disease and the corruption of the ruling Kuomintang government.
Champion competitive marksman Ken comes across an armored van robbery. He sees a policeman held hostage and shoots and kills four of the robbers. One of the robbers escapes and the policeman survives. The case is handled by Jerry Chang, whom Ken knows from having recently beaten him in a shooting match. Ken is found not guilty in court. Soon after, Ken is attacked by the escaped robber Pang Tao. Their confrontation reveals a very different background story and brings about a myriad of lies and traps and changes in relationships as Jerry and Ken try to outsmart each other.
A feisty single mother, Wang Tiemei, moves to a new home with her child, Wang Moli,and befriends her neighbor, Xiao Ye, who is supposedly sober and in love with her brain. Two women with very different personalities, one strong, one soft, one good at mothering people, one good at lying at all times. Faced with old traumas and new challenges, they warm and comfort each other. As for the two men surrounding Wang Tiemei, her ex-husband makes trouble from time to time, and her daughter's drummer teacher seems to be full of new possibilities. As women who have awakened and men who have learned about gender issues, what new problems will they encounter? How will they see themselves and the world?
Set in a bustling alleyway during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the 1940s, the film centres on a wife, Zhan Zhou, who was being charged with the bloody dismemberment of her husband – a killing that seems impossible for her to have committed alone. The murder thrusts Zhan into the spotlight and the court of public opinion, forcing her towards a fate intertwined with that of her own country.
Based on the novel of the same name by Shanghai writer Sun Ganlu, which won the 11th Mao Dun Literature Prize
