Drama
Set in the roaring 1920s in cosmopolitan Shanghai, the epitome of a country in absolute chaos after years of civil war. Ma Tsou-jih (Jiang Wen), a fallen aristocrat and now full-time swindler, teams up with French Concession policeman “Bruno” Hsiang Fei-t’ien (Ge You) to launder money for Wu-Seven (Wen Zhang), the notorious playboy son of the local warlord. Their scam involves the staging of an elaborate global pageant for courtesans that Ma’s lover Wanyan Ying (Shu Qi) duly wins. Everything works like a charm until, one morning after an all-night drug binge, Ma wakes up next to Wanyan’s dead body in a swamp. Now everyone wants Ma dead for a murder that he does not even remember committing, for different and selfish reasons: Hsiang, a boyhood buddy, wants him dead to advance his policing career; Teacher Ch’i (Hung Huang), his high school Latin teacher, wants him dead because she wants her smitten daughter Wu-Six (Zhou Yun) to marry into New Money instead of a fugitive; Marshal Wu (Liu Linian) wants him dead just to curry a favour with his concubines... and as for the general public, they simply want someone dead and be blamed for what is morally wrong with the country.