CHINA, DURING THS SINO-JAPANESE WAR
A BITTER POWER STRUGGLE TEARS THE COUNTRY APART
VICE PRESIDENT WANG DECLARES A NEW GOVERNMENT
BACKED BY THE INVADING JAPANESE ARMY
THIS PUPPET REGIME TRIES TO LURE AWAY OFFICIALS
FROM CHIANG KAI-SHEK'S CAMP
TO FURTHER GAIN FAVOR WITH HIS JAPANESE MASTERS
WANG BRUTALLY CLAMPS DOWN THE RESISTANCE
THAT SEEKS TO RETURN CHINA TO THE CHINESE
AS THE PUPPET REGIME GROWS MORE TYRANNICAL
THE RESISTANCE COUNTERS WITH INCREASINGLY BLOODY ASSASSINATIONS
THE MESSAGE
OCTOBER 10, 1942 THE NATIONAL HOLIDAY
Sorry,
We're closed tonight.
How come? We're trying to celebrate.
The whole restaurant's booked.
Got it?!
Even General Tang has joined us.
And he's not the only one, of course.
You know,
General He...
and the rest of them.
We're beating back Chiang Kai-Shek and his men in every battle.
His government won't be able to hold out much longer.
President Wang holds you in the highest esteem.
He sent me here to invite you,
to join him on the viewing platform at the ceremony.
He would be most honored,
even if you're only there briefly.
President Wang needs the
support of people like you.
Go ahead.
The Chungking style chicken here is the genuine article.
You've been holed up in the North too long. Have a taste.
Mr Fan...
I need your answer now.
Smells nice...
Doesn't it?
It comes from Sri Lanka.
Drives our Puppy crazy.
Now tell me--cause you'll sooner or later.
Who do you get your orders from?
Puppy..
Go!
Colonel Takeda.
You must be Mr Six.
I'm a great admirer of your work.
You're too kind.
Col. Takeda has a remarkable command of Chinese.
She's a tough one.
We've tried everything at our disposal.
She won't break.
Then Mr Six is the man for the job.
Don't let me keep you.
Just turn these assassinations over...
to the Chinese authorities.
You'll be sent back to the Home Islands soon enough.
Don't get mixed up in all this.
Gen. Tsukeda, sir--
The head of the Resistance...
is a man code-named Magnum.
Though he's never exposed himself,
he's behind these assassinations.
I've got a strong feeling that
Magnum has a mole in our operations.
Feelings are for women, Takeda.
Feelings don't have any place in war.
My part in the war is almost over, sir.
This would be my last chance to redeem myself.
I can't return home as a failure. It would bring shame to my family.
That woman finally cracked.
She's with Magnum alright.
She says they get their orders,
from a message board
in front of the city temple.
The orders are written on a lottery flyer.
That sounds like their M.O.
We found this in her home.
Has she ever met the person who posts the flyers?
She bumped into him once.
He's an old cripple.
Commissioner, I've seen the cripple before.
He's a janitor at the Counter-Insurgency Center.
- Retreat! - Yes, sir.
Mission abort!
You did the right thing.
If you'd taken him in,
we'd have lost our only lead.
If the person who posts the flyers,
ia a janitor at our Counter-Insurgency Center,
then we can also presume...
that he's getting his information
from someone else working at the Counter-Insurgency Center.
Correct!
Our sources say their codename is Phantom.
The next move is ours.
Li Ningyu, Head Officer of the Decoding Section.
Gu Xiaomeng, Administration Officer of the Decoding Section.
Sir!
Okay.
Hello...
Wu Zhiguo, Chief Captain of Counter-Insurgency.
I understood.
Jin Shenghuo, Section Chief of the Military Office.
Greetings!
Bai Xiaonian, Aide to the Commander of Counter-Insurgency.
For the Commander.
CITY TEMPLE, TWO DAYS LATER
Takeda et al to gather at Bai Cao Hall on October 31.
Request assassination plan from Magnum.
Please hold on.
Moving now.
We have to go.
- Now? - Yes!
Where the hell are we?
Spooky...
It used to be called Qiu Manor.
The Japanese have taken over it now...
Turned it into their own little pleasure palace.
High ranking officers only.
Looks like this is serious matter.
And someone's...
going to be in for it.
What makes you say that?
Didn't you see? The Chief of Special Services is here too.
Chief Wang.
Good evening, everyone.
May I suggest that you go to your rooms and freshen up first?
We'll meet in the conference room in half an hour.
What do you mean, freshen up?
Let's just get the meeting over with,
so that we can all go home.
Patience, Ms Gu!
Just go to your room first.
If you would.
All right.
Lieutenant Bai--
That room.
Chief Jin--
This way.
Chief Captain Wu--
That way.
Where's ours?
I'm still feeling sick.
Fairy shed light on heaven's secrets.
Win every time with White Dove lottery tickets.
3-6-4-4-5-6-0-2...
What is this all about?
Total gibberish.
The Imperial Army
intercepted this coded message this afternoon.
At first glance, nothing more than an ad for the lottery.
But according to our intelligence
it contains a message from an underground organization.
Regarding a new wave of assassinations.
We've asked all of you here to
help us crack the code,
before it's too late.
You must be joking.
None of us here are cryptographers,
except for Officer Li.
What did you bring us here for?
To play mahjong?
Officer Bai, this order came directly...
from the upper levels of the Japanese Army.
It would be best if everyone cooperated fully.
Does Commander Zhang know about this?
No!
The commander is in Nanking on business
until the day after tomorrow.
All these numbers...
Don't look at me.
I don't know anything about codes.
What about you?
Not in my area of interest.
I specialize more in blackjack, mahjong...
that kind of thing.
Li?
Li!
You're the expert here.
What do you say?
It's no good.
We can't crack it.
These numbers
have obviously been encrypted.
There're 18 characters in total.
To decode what they're meant to be, we'd need the codebook.
Otherwise...
we could be here for days and still come up with nothing.
Did you hear that?
Go tell the Japanese,
we can't help them.
I want to go home.
I don't have time for this nonsense.
I've got a sweep to go out on tomorrow.
Col. Takeda...
Who's that?
The head of intelligence for the Imperial Army.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
A consummate professional indeed.
Here's the codebook.
Shall we begin?
7-8-7-1
Got them.
Jin?
Eh--
What are they doing there?
They're, um...uh...
Enough with the um-ing. What is it?
You've heard of Morse Code?
Get on with it.
Now...Morse code is use for
telegrams all over the world.
With Chinese, it works a bit differently.
Each Chinese character is represented by 4 digits.
There're 72 digits in these telegram.
Total of 18 characters.
But the sender deliberately scrambled the digits before they sent it out.
Now Li over there is trying to figure out...
the algorithm they used. Once she's got that,
she can decode the message.
One-Zero
And?
This can't be...
What's wrong?
Takeda et al to gather
at Bai Cao Hall on October 31.
What does it say?
They're planning to assassinate Gen. Tsukeda.
We set a trap--a telegram with false summons to a meeting with Tsukeda.
The mole in our office took the bait.
And sent this to their co-conspirators.
You five are the only ones
who had any contact with the original message.
Which is to say--
One of you is the mole.
Who's been leaking intelligence
under the name Phantom.
Whichever one of you it is
just confess.
I promise you'll be treated humanely.
Please forgive me,
but I have my orders.
Nobody leaves the building
until the Phantom is found.
Who are you writing to?
You scared me.
Dear sister...what're you writing a letter for?
We'll be out here in 2 days.
I'll go find Liu myself.
And give him a piece of my mind.
You really think we'll be out of here in 2 days?
Sure, it's not hard to guess who this Phantom is.
Tea?
You've got a split seam!
On the left.
I'll stitch it up for you.
Take it off for me.
Wow, that's a big hole.
Is there a sewing kit here?
I think so...
Bingo!
Found it!
Here, let me help.
There you go.
You once told me,
that your mother wanted you to be a proper lady, right?
Yeah.
This's the first time I've ever seen you doing anything ladylike.
Sis...
I don't know why,
but I've always felt close to you.
Especially today...
What's wrong?
Liu hasn't been by in days.
Unfettered in the wild wastes
I mastered yin and yang, and knew the heavens...
What are you singing?
The Empty City.
It's an old Tangshan ballad, from Leting.
Sing some more.
Well--
Would I be rewarded with a smoke?
Here.
But when the country needed me, I fought...
To cast out the pretender to the throne...
Why Captain Wu, I never knew you were from Leting.
What--
You too?
My grandfather always used to sing that when I was little.
No kidding? What a coincidence.
With all the people in the headquarters,
we ever hardly get the chance to talk.
I never thought I had meet someone
from my old hometown here.
It must be fate.
There're plenty of people from around there in the headquarters.
But not necessarily from Leting village.
It might just be us.
Yeah.
Say, after we get out of here in a couple of days,
I'll take everyone out to celebrate, my treat.
Has Li made a move yet?
Still mooning over
her actor boyfriend, Liu.
Gu just said
she knows who the Phantom is.
She seems a bit off.
A bit spoiled, you mean.
She comes from money.
As for Officer Bai...
he's got friends in high places too.
So I've heard his relationship with Commander Zhang...
is indeed very unique.
Come, Bai.
We're all waiting for you.
Here, have something to eat.
Quite a spread.
Is this suppose to be our last supper?
My old friend Bai, always the joker...
That little pretty head of yours
is just full of jokes.
You can count me out.
I'm no spy--
I faint at the sight of chicken blood.
You think I'd join the Resistance?
Wang--
You know me.
This section chief position of mine...
It's bullshit, I got it through connections.
You'd know better.
My wife's related to Commander Zhang's wife on her father's side.
See?
This all has to be a mistake.
I've never heard anything about the Phantom.
I mean
maybe it's the Japanese that've the mole, right?
It couldn't be anymore obvious,
Section Chief Jin is the one you want.
He's the most suspicious of any of us.
Why?
He has a nephew,
who joined the Red Army when he was only 15.
He's become chief of staff at their headquarters in Yenan.
Fence-sitter that he is, Jin must still be in contact with him.
He's been keeping a mistress for years.
With money from weapons smuggling.
Do I look like I'm joking now?
I've got dirt on everybody here, including yours.
What a rough job you have--
Here all on your own.
The others are downstairs for backup.
Backup?
As if we were dangerous.
I need to make a phone call--just a short one.
No can do.
It's just to call home.
It won't be long, I promise.
You can even listen if you want.
I told you,
it's not an option.
Fine, then I won't trouble you.
Here's the number to my house.
And a list of things I need.
Can you call them for me and
have them bring my things here.
Pretty please?
Ms Gu...
We need you to come with us.
I don't know--I mean,
I'm not sure--
Can't be certain...
What do you want me to do?
Make something up?
No, no!
Certainly not--
You were the one who delivered the telegraph.
Just try and think back.
Did you notice anything suspicious?
It all went according to protocol.
Nothing to be suspicious of...
What were you going to say?
Nothing!
You paused. Something came to mind.
Captain Wu saw the telegram.
Go on...
When I handed the telegraph to Chief Jin,
Captain Wu was with him.
Normally...
A classified telegram would be eyes-only...
for the officer in charge.
But that day...
When I delivered it to Chief Jin,
Captain Wu didn't look away,
he actually glanced at it briefly.
He shouldn't have done that.
But then again...
it's probably nothing.
Do you know how much blood I've shed all the years
I've served President Wang?
I was shot 3 times.
It's little weasels like you,
we should be watching out for.
Who knows which side you'll end up on if the tables turn?
I see...
Until we catch the Phantom,
we're all still colleagues here.
You rank above me-- just above me--
And so I'm showing you...
the respect you deserve.
Let's hope you leave here safely.
Ask whatever you want,
but the answer will be the same...
I don't know anything.
I've checked.
It's the number to the Gus' house.
What about the list?
Anything suspicious?
Looks normal to me.
Don't call her family.
Send someone to buy the things she's asking for.
What if the others start making similar requests?
None of them would have the nerve.
What does her family do again?
Her grandfather was with General Xu.
Her father went into business--
Textiles...
Cement, Shipping--
You named it.
They say he's close to President Wang.
Just last year, he donated a JU-52 to the Air Force.
He donated a plane?
That's what I call rich.
Let's make dinner more interesting.
Before they go down, tell everyone what the others've said,
including Gu saying she knows who the Phantom is.
Why aren't you eating? What's the matter?
Once a bitch...
always a bitch.
A mincing, conniving little bitch.
Councillor Jin,
who're you talking about?
The faggot knows perfectly well.
Just exactly what I'm talking about.
You're spoiling...my appetite.
I'll rip your fucking head off.
Calm down, chief.
Let him come! The coward.
We'll see how hard you can get.
Stop it!
- You want some whipping? - We're all colleagues here.
Stop!
Stop it! Calm down!
Colleagues my ass!
I'm no colleague of a slanderous...rumor spreading bitch!
I was merely...
stating the facts.
Facts?
I'll give you facts.
I was shot twice last year at the battle in Yueyang.
But I still keep going.
Didn't back down 'til I took out the enemy pillbox.
Where were you then?
Sipping tea and reading the newspaper in your fucking office.
Then whoring around after work, I bet!
Captain Wu!
Being a brave soldier doesn't mean you're always right.
Remember Deputy General Gao ?
A hero in every battle he fought, even lost an arm for us.
But he still went to the other side in the end.
Say that again.
Say it again!
You're calling me a traitor?
Just giving an example.
You don't need to volunteer yourself so quickly.
Take it easy, Captain.
Stop it.
Get out of my way.
Out of my way. This is no business of yours.
Go ahead.
Let's see what kind of hero you are.
If you're so strong, why don't you go...
pick fights with the Japanese instead of women?
Captain Wu!
May I suggest you finish your dinner first?
A man raises his hand against a woman,
and nobody does anything?
There's no need for this.
We're all amongst ourselves.
NOBODY WILL MAKE IT OUT OF HERE ALIVE
NEED TO TAKE EXTREME MEASURES
TO HAVE ANY CHANCE OF GETTING MESSAGE OUT...
We truly apologize for the...
inconvenience to you all.
Col. Takeda has specifically directed...
After the Phantom is found...
Each of you'll be rewarded for your assistance.
If you'd all be kind enough,
to write down your ranks, pay grade...
and evaluation scores...
During the years of your services--
You'll all be rewarded accordingly once this is over.
What do you want?
What's going on?
Released me!
Who'd they get?
It's not me.
It's really not me!
Well, then can you explain to me...
Just why your handwriting is identical to the Phantom's?
Well?!
Someone's framing me!
It must be. It must be!
Pull his pants down.
Hold your step.
Commander.
I'm disciplining my dog.
What's so funny about that?
There's a rat in your unit.
What rat?
General Tsukeda has asked me
to take full charge of this.
Commander Zhang...I'm afraid the General faith in you
has been greatly shaken.
Do you evidence?
Bring over the handwriting file.
Now!
If it were anyone else, this would already be over.
But since it's Lieutenant Bai, your confidant...
I think it's best if you prove your innocence first.
Commander...
Comamnder.
Help me!
I'm not the Phantom!
Officer Li, please get dressed immediately and come with me.
Where to?
One minute. You've one minute to get ready.
Please wait here.
Please enter...
Sir...
We have a situation. One of our men,
just saw Captain Wu barge into Gu's bedroom.
See anything?
It's too dark.
Turn it up.
I'm apologizing to you,
Please just leave.
I don't want your apology.
Why? Why can't we just talk it out?
What are you doing?
I'll call the guards!
I'm their commanding officer.
What are they going to do to me?
Let go of me! Let go!
What's going on?
We're losing the signal...
Your boyfriend, Liu--the actor?
You haven't seen each other for about a week, no?
Yes!
He's with the military police now.
What's he doing there?
What do you think he's doing there?
Commissioner!
Why didn't you stop him?
I didn't dare, sir.
Knock on the door.
And ask Captain Wu down to the living room.
Tell him I would like to speak to him.
- Go! - Yes, sir!
What is it?
Commissioner, sir! No, sorry, I mean, Chief Captain, sir!
Commissioner Wang would like to...
Talk to you in the living room.
Tell him I'm sleeping.
HUMAN ANATOMY
The first time I saw you,
I noticed your features.
A narrow forehead...
high cheekbones...
and a thin nose.
Your eyes are deep-set.
Women with that kind of facial structure...
are not to be trusted.
Even if on the surface,
they may seem to be above reproach.
You've been acting, all along...
What do you take Liu in for?
A unit like counter-insurgency can't allow for any uncertainty.
If you share your bed with a rebel,
what else might you be sharing with him?
Ms Gu?
Ms Gu...are you asleep?
What do you want?
Just passing by.
Are you ok?
I'm fine.
I brought you a snack.
If you need anything...
I'll be around.
To hell with him!
If you can prove that you're not the Phantom,
it would also clear up our suspicions about Liu.
I suspect the resume you submitted to us...
was mostly made up.
During the interrogation today,
your hostility--
only shows that you're hiding something.
You're one of our best code-breakers, I'm told.
But did you know that...
every inch of the body carries a code?
If you can pass this examination,
you and Liu'll have nothing to worry about.
Your physical features...
from every orifice to every limb,
all carry the genetic code of who we are...
Showing our true identities.
In order to get to that,
I'll need to break your will first.
And the way to break your will,
is to help you realize,
that your body does not belong to you.
It belongs to your enemy.
Now let go.
Give yourself over completely.
"Wherefore, there in her shimmering eyes of jade...
shine golden pupils peering at my own?"
HAVE COME UP WITH A PLAN
HEAVEN HELP ME NOW
So Lieutenant Bai died during the interrogation--