Traitors, arms dealers, and a basement full of grenades—what could go wrong?
During the war, a small town butcher store, drug dealer Li Buyun, rogue Liu Tianyuan, soldier gangster Pan Qishan and a group of villains on the orders of the Japanese commander Yamamoto, secretly planning to set up a traitor organization to maintain the Association. They are fighting for oil and water, and Yamamoto has to send police chief Yang Kecheng to strengthen control, but Yang is an uncompromising straw man. Liu Tianyuan and Pan Qishan get a batch of arms to sell to a buyer outside the city, but the news is learned by Li Buyun, and the two sides fight for profit. When Pan Qishan came to report that the buyer of the arms was a guerrilla group. The gunfire is so loud that the villains hide in the basement, only to be blown up by the guerrillas with the grenades they are selling.
Writing
Satirical script where villains architect their own doom.
Production
1948 Shanghai studio craft under postwar constraints.
Director
Changlin Xu
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Chinese Civil War's final act, this satirizes collaborators while the Communist victory was still uncertain—bold timing.
Director Changlin Xu and star Shangguan Yunzhu were prominent leftist filmmakers; many in this crew faced persecution during later political campaigns.
CN
