A tutor?
I think she's merely a slave.
What do you mean by that?
This is yours.
No way.
Are you a victim of his too?
I always do that.
Unbelievable.
BASED ON PAI HSIEN-YUNG'S WORK A GREAT LITERARY FIGURE OF TAIWAN
An airplane!
Here comes an airplane!
Look! An airplane!
An airplane!
That's so cool.
I told you I would find you.
Look! Who's that?
-He seems to be lost. -No.
He came for Qing.
He danced with her the other day.
It must be a coincidence.
Stand there, Qing. Let's see if he will come back for you.
Don't be ridiculous.
Stand there yourself. I'm going back to my room.
"A girl in white shirt and blue skirt
was standing in the beautiful twilight.
Her name remains unknown."
I don't care about the twilight part. Don't write my name in your report.
But I'm supposed to write everything I see in the flight report.
Pick a name from the newspaper then.
But a random name from the newspaper won't remind me of the beautiful twilight.
Hey.
How about this?
I will fly to see you every day at sunset,
but I won't write your name in. Just your coordinates. Is that okay?
If I give you my name, will you stop flying by?
Yes.
Gretchen.
Gretchen. I will write your name in when I get back.
Thanks.
I see your taste has improved since the war.
I am Gretchen.
Yes, of course. You are mature and elegant.
JINLING GIRLS' COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Sit down.
I thought you wouldn't want another field trip
after being scared by the ghost. You haven't fully recovered, have you?
-Someone will try to scare us again. -Why?
I thought I could scare you.
Did it work?
I see that Gretchen is not here today.
That's good.
What are you writing, Mo-ting?
I see.
"Qing Zhu."
You're the best!
Thank you.
But Mo-ting,
"How suddenly the morning comes in spring..."
You spelled "spring" wrong.
Let me teach you.
She's not a good tutor, is she?
Hey.
Qing Zhu,
we're going to have a flying contest soon and I'll be the leader.
The prize is new airplanes.
Can you do me a favor?
Like the day at that party,
can you stand at the center of the field
and be my beacon?
I don't understand. That's none of my business.
Give me some hope.
Like what you gave to her? You asked her to wait for you.
No wonder she hurled the ball at you.
Hey, kid.
What do you get if you multiply five by one?
Five, one, three.
If you want hope, write more notes to the students and nurses.
Goodness.
No wonder my clothes felt different after Lady Qin washed them.
All the notes are gone. That's why.
Well...
The hope is for Lady Qin.
If we win, we can have the new airplanes.
Lieutenant Colonel can finally quit flying and live peacefully with Lady Qin.
That's a prospect, not hope.
In English, we use different tenses to express the present and the future.
"Hope" is about something that will happen in the future,
while "prospect" is about the present and the future.
You are a good teacher.
I understand it now.
"Pray" is about the present.
It's about the present and the future.
That day at the New Society Club,
I saw you looking at the photo and praying for him.
Is that so?
That picture was taken in Gansu, before I was injured.
What are the odds?
I was caught by you, twice.
Am I your "prospect"?
I thought you were killed in the battle, so...
Ignore me. It's bad luck to talk like that.
Anyway, you've got someone waiting for you in the Gansu Military Hospital.
Oh, that.
I've forgotten about that. Has she come?
The sun is going down.
The pigeons are going back to their nests.
Do you think Lady Qin's prospect will come true?
She deserves someone who can be there and make newspaper clippings with her.
You are just like a beacon.
Thin and flat.
I can recognize you from afar even if you are in the mountains.
Are you leaving?
I hope to meet someone to spend my entire life with.
That pilot isn't a nice guy.
Forget about him.
"I dream that you'll wait for my return, Mo-ting."
He even hit on Mo-ting.
He's such a womanizer.
It would be horrible if he did write this.
"I dream."
Even the handwriting is similar,
I can't even lie to myself that it wasn't him.
I wasted so much effort
coming here to find him.
I made it.
Gong.
What are you looking at?
Didn't you say I shouldn't join the field trip?
Well, that depends on the weather.
Sometimes it's cloudy, sometimes it's sunny.
-What are you writing? -You're blocking the light.
I've seen the light bulbs on the runway change color,
but I didn't expect a beacon to change her clothes.
So, what do I get?
The hope or the prospect?
Are you willing to be my beacon?
I'm not interested.
Is it cloudy today?
No.
It's a sunny day.
It's cloudy.
Ignore him.
Qing.
-Hey, where are you going? -I won't be your beacon.
I'm not here for that.
Give me your hand. Just give me it. Hold this.
The pigeon is wounded. Gong wants to cook it. Look after it.
I'll pick it up after it recovers.
513.
Stay off the table from now on.
Go under the bed.
You can stay on the windowsill.
Do you hear me?
Do you?
The night is approaching, but Lieutenant Colonel is still flying around
like a new pilot.
Can he see you?
Yes.
As long as we are in the village,
they'll always fly back to us no matter how far they go.
They are like wild pigeons.
Before the night comes, they will rest by the river and drink some water.
Wild pigeons?
They only come home once they are done flying.
Otherwise, they will keep flying.
That's why I say they are wild pigeons.
He's so annoying.
Remain calm and still.
That's what they are afraid of.
The Air Force men can't stay still when they're in the sky.
Zhen Guo.
You're a lieutenant. Why are you doing the guards' job?
I'm not, Lady Qin.
I'm here to inspect them.
I'll leave first.
Sometimes, when they are out of oil,
or when the weather stops them from flying,
they will become impatient and find a place to land rashly.
Those who are on the ground must be alert...
because they may come unexpectedly.
Wild pigeons.
They will leave sooner or later.
We are like the runway and the control tower.
We must stay here. We won't leave.
We can't leave.
Don't be like us. We spend our days drinking coffee and dancing.
It may seem like fun, but it's not.
They probably missed my last telegraph.
Lady Qin, you haven't been home since the war ended.
I haven't been home since I got married.
They didn't want me to marry an Air Force man.
I had to make a choice between him and them.
A married daughter is a stranger to her family.
I want to walk around for a little bit.
Be careful on your way back.
I told you not to eat it.
So?
Where did it go?
It survived Gong, but it couldn't survive 513.
Bad cat.
Hey.
I heard you cursing me in your room.
I'm here for the pigeon.
Has it recovered?
Hey, Qing. Open the door.
When I came in, I saw Gretchen took the girls out with her.
Don't worry. Open the door.
How did you know I live here?
Give me my pigeon and I'll tell you.
Hurry, they may be back soon.
For your information,
a lot of people saw me when I came in here.
Be careful. People might gossip.
I see.
Your room faces south.
That's great. I'll know exactly where to fly next time.
Hey.
Oh, yeah.
You aren't married yet. I can't sit on your bed.
Go over there.
Have a seat.
Where is my pigeon?
It flew out. It will be back later.
It's almost dusk. It should be back by now.
Flying back to its small, lovely home.
513.
Its name is 513 too? The land 513...
Did it eat the pigeon?
No.
This is wrong.
The land 513 ate its counterpart. It must be punished. Give it to me.
Your pigeon just flew out to drink some water.
But look at the cat's fur.
It's shiny.
It must have eaten my pigeon.
Damn it! My pigeon is gone.
Goodness.
I thought they were fine.
The cat was living under the bed and the pigeon was on the windowsill.
They seemed to get along.
I don't know why the pigeon is gone today.
I'm just joking with you. The pigeon flew back to the base.
It will come back in 10 minutes.
Once it finds the path, it will never forget.
Just like our men.
Hey.
It hasn't been 10 minutes. Why did you come back so early?
Do that again. Fly that one more time.
Don't underestimate it.
It's the fighting pigeon at our base.
During the war, it's more reliable than the radio and telegraph.
The second day it was here,
it already learned the path from the base to your room.
It used to take more than half a month for it to do that.
So, it wasn't wounded?
It was.
It was deeply wounded.
Animals experience psychological trauma too, like Gong.
You followed it. That's how you found out where I live.
No, I saw it resting on your windowsill.
So, I guessed that it was your room.
-Get out. -Hey...
Get out!
Take it.
Hey.
Someone from our base wrote a note to you. It carried the note here.
"It's a pilot too.
Its number is 513.
Thank you for praying for me."
Silly.
Lieutenant Colonel just landed.
Yes.
Will they move away after Lieutenant Colonel finishes his training?
No.
Why would they do that?
Renai East Village is their home.
The other day,
I went to the post office with Lady Qin. She wanted to send a telegraph.
Then she went to the village next to hers.
She said she just wanted to have a look.
I don't buy it.
She seemed to be very familiar with that village.
I think she likes it a lot.
You mean the shabby village next to the post office?
That's the old dependents' village.
They lived there when Lady Qin and Lieutenant Colonel just got married.
That's also the place...
where Lady Qin had a miscarriage...
and lost her child.
At that time,
Lieutenant Colonel was leading us in the fight
against the Japanese
in Northern Shaanxi.
But Lady Qin told me,
her child is at another base, playing with the pilots there.
Yes.
Up there.
Her child...
is playing...
with the former members of the 11th Wing up in the sky.
Don't look for me at school.
I'll help you with the competition.
Really?
But on one condition. You must accept it first.
No problem. I accept your condition.
I'm going back to school now.
You can't break your promise.
But you haven't told me what your condition is.
I'll tell you after the competition, if you don't lose.
-That's enough. -Is that okay?
This is Lieutenant Colonel's airplane.
Hello, Vice-Captain.
Vice-Captain,
Lieutenant Colonel is letting me use his plane for the competition.
Here.
Your team members have been waiting to train with you,
but you didn't sign the flight training report.
You signed the permission slips to use the motorcycles instead.
Sir, we can't win the competition.
Hey.
Lieutenant Colonel hasn't lost one war.
If he loses this competition, he will blame all of us for it.
I said we can't win, but I didn't say we'll lose.
If Gong and I can make some changes to the planes,
maybe we'll have a chance to win.
Vice-Captain!
Sir, permission to fly!
Okay.
There's no need to train.
The 1st Squadron of the 9th Wing are my old classmates.
They are all very experienced in any situation.
You won't be able to win.
Take this, Gong.
If you want to fly the new airplanes, fly the terrible ones first.
I used to fly the old Russian biplane.
Its screws would fall out.
If we don't train and lose the competition, Lieutenant Colonel...
He might put you in confinement.
Have you experienced that before?
It's very comfortable.
You don't have to drill or train. Gong will even bring food to you.
Back when we were at the academy, I often brought food to your leader
so that he became healthy and strong.
I don't want to fly either.
I want to be placed in confinement.
Judging by your skills, you have no chance of winning.
Go and push your airplanes over here. I'll fix them.
Sir, the competition is coming soon. I just had maintenance done.
Keeping it well-maintained won't do you any good.
Push it over here.
Yes, sir!
Also,
don't bring the parachutes when we compete.
Let your survival instincts push you. See if that works.
Falling from a low altitude isn't as scary as falling from a high altitude.
Falling from a high altitude gives you time to think about death,
but if it's from a low altitude...
it'll be over before you know it.
Wait.
What are your blood types?
-Type A. -Type O.
I see.
I'm not joking.
If you don't believe me, go check the records of the academy.
People have died during low-level flying competitions.
I forgot that you can't eat spicy food.
It's okay.
I've put away the old photos.
I see.
Here.
-Thank you, sir. -What?
It's all right. She's not very familiar with me yet.
That's a beautiful bracelet.
It looks good on you.
Xu-hui gave it to me when we got married.
It broke the day he fell from the sky.
I saw it when I was putting his stuff away in the box.
I...
I wanted to keep something that reminds me of him,
so I had it repaired.
You should keep that.
-Have some soup. -Thanks.
-Are you on duty today? -Yes.
I'm full. I should go now.
Wait.
I won't wear it anymore.
You don't have to do that.
He deserves to be remembered.
That's the right thing to do.
I'm sorry to do that to you.
What are you doing? You want to wash the dishes?
I wanted to skip the chilies, but you didn't want to eat plain food.
Stop clearing the table. We're going out.
Okay. Where are we going?
My goodness.
You seemed so serious just now.
Why did you thank him?
Did you learn that from your godmother?
What a naughty girl.
I always remember that day.
The streets in Nanjing were very quiet and we were very happy.
It was as though we had gone back in time
to a time when they were still young maidens.
No pilots.
No waiting.
The pilots also needed enemies
and the shadow they saw when they were landing.
Sir, I'm only at half throttle, but it already feels very hard to control.
My engine is shaking violently. It's going to fall apart.
Fall apart?
If so, Gong will mourn for you.
I've taken off the seat shield to lower the weight,
and coated the wings to reduce the wind resistance.
If I didn't use these tricks, you wouldn't have any chance of winning.
Here comes the 9th Wing.
The competition begins.
Those are the 9th Wing's airplanes.
The three behind them are the 11th Wing's.
Why can't I cheer for the 9th Wing? We're fighting the same enemies after all.
What do you know?
You two behind me, start searching. Inform me when you find our objective.
The 9th Wing will go down to 300 feet.
When we reach 200 feet, we'll pull up.
Won't we hit the ground, sir?
When we were at the academy, we always started from 200 feet.
We wouldn't stop until the window glass broke.
-How high was that? -It was 60 feet.
That's Lieutenant Colonel's record.
Dive!
"There's a monkey named Friday on an uninhabited island."
And there is a 513 in Nanjing, whose IQ is no greater than a monkey.
Sir, my engine temperature is too high.
Don't mind that. Follow me.
Let's see how low they can go.
This is my prank.
I'd like to see if he's that good.
Sir, should we go down?
They just got down to 80 feet.
Shut up.
It was the same height when we attacked the Japanese battlefield.
They were not rookies.
The 11th Wing here. The 9th Wing, please come in.
The 9th Wing, go ahead.
One last round. Let's go down together.
The first to pull up loses.
Roger. Height and distance?
Fifty feet.
-Sir! -Shut up!
Roger, 50 feet.
Start forming. Over.
My beacon is not there.
I can't see anything, sir.
My engine is going to blow.
They can't see either.
Go to full throttle.
The used oil will come in handy.
The 11th Wing, your airplanes are malfunctioning.
We can't see anything.
The 1st Squadron, I've located the beacon.
Let's go down to 50 feet. Pull up on the count of three.
No more, no less. Go.
One, two, three, pull!
The 9th Wing can't see clearly. Abort! Pull up!
To the 11th Wing. Double-one, double strong.
JIANG'S RESIDENCE
Let's eat.
Let's go to the movies after we finish.
They only show romance movies. It's so typical.
They're worse than war movies.
Maybe another day.
Lieutenant Colonel, may I leave?
You should ask Lady Qin.
She's not one of the wives.
You can go back to school.
Haven't you been complaining about how I dock your wages?
I'll do that again if you leave.
I order you to eat. You can't leave before you finish.
Eat first. Here.
Try this.
After we finish...
-Zhi-jian. -Yes?
Go see if we can use the new airplanes for the parade.
-Okay. -Okay?
Thanks.
Lieutenant Colonel.
I'm not the one who you should thank.
Sir, thank you.
And to the beacon too.
Thanks, Ying.
To everyone.
Let's drink.
Mo-ting.
You were their beacon?
I removed most of the parts.
The smoke came billowing out. We couldn't see anything.
The only one I could see was her.
I see.
Like how she saw you in Zhejiang.
Zhejiang?
I don't know if the one she saw was me.
I told him I'd do it on one condition.
The wives would be beacons for free.
You even gave him a condition?
When I was at Hangzhou Normal University,
we were asked to write letters to the Air Force.
A senior schoolmate's letter got a reply from a pilot,
so she was expelled.
I want to know what happened to her.
Can't you write to her?
I lost touch with her.
That's what happened to her. She lost touch with everyone she knew.
It's the same with every girl who gets a note from a pilot.
That's not something new.
Here.
Why does she get to sit at that table?
Keep your voice down.
The leader took her to sit there with Lady Qin.
When will you be the leader? I want to sit there too.
Don't say that.
We can only be promoted when our seniors are dead.
Don't speak of that when they are still alive.
It's against the military rules.
Military rules? How about our college's rules?
She's just a freshman.
Look at how she talked back to me.
You are her senior and Gang Wang is my junior.
That's just the way it is.
If you bully my beacon,
I'll do the same thing to Gang Wang.
But if you leave her be, then I can make things easier for him too.
That's fair.
Sir, allow me to propose a toast.
Whether it's in the college or the Air Force,
we don't want any trouble.
We are eating now.
Can't you see Lieutenant Colonel hasn't finished yet?
Let's go to the movies.
Mo-ting, let's go.
-Captain, can I go see a movie? -Go ahead.
Be careful.
Lieutenant Colonel!
-Han. -Yes.
Eleven dishes, as always.
I'm here to congratulate you.
You didn't compete seriously.
He'll still be second to me even if he competes seriously.
This feels worse than being shot down by the Japanese.
-I should retire. -For this?
All right, you can have the new airplanes.
You didn't win the low-level flight competition with honor.
We can't accept that you're getting the new airplanes.
Right.
Are you happy? We're going to watch a movie.
What do you want to watch, Qing?
-It's up to you. -Why do pilots get to have all the girls?
Hey, look. They even flirt with the elementary students.
Watch your mouth.
When the Japanese planes came, you ran away.
When they retreated, you came back.
Which side are you on?
Give me a minute. I'll be back soon.
Go to the alley.
The Military Police will stop a fight between soldiers and civilians.
They're nearby.
Let it go. Don't mind them.
I just want to exercise a bit. It'll be quick.
Call the Military Police.
What are you going to do?
Hasn't your school taught you manners?
-Hey! -How can you have such a foul mouth?
Are you alright?
Hold him!
Hit him!
Asshole!
Don't run too far. What if something goes wrong?
-Things will definitely go wrong. -What?
The Air Force men are fierce in the sky but not on the ground.
Let's go back and find him.
Hey! You guys are bad friends. Don't run away without me.
There are too many of them. It's not fair.
Mo-ting, where are you going? Mo-ting?
We don't have time to look after her.
I won't leave you alone.
Zhen Guo, lieutenant of the 11th Wing. Repeat.
-What are you talking about? -Remember that.
You can collect my pension if anything happens to me.
What's going on here?
Run! Hurry!
Sir.
Leave the fighting on the ground to the Army.
-Thank you, officer. Let's go. -No need to thank me.
My wing is this way.
But the Military Police Force is this way.
Dependents should accompany us.
-Lady Qin. -Lieutenant Colonel will bail him out.
Let him learn a lesson.
The pension is for wives, isn't it? A wife like my mom.
Mo-ting.
Don't speak about the pension in the village, do you hear me?
Especially in front of your mom.
Zhen joked about that during the fight.
He said if anything happens to him, Qing can collect his pension.
How long will it take for you to finish your degree?
It's a foreign school, so it will be four years.
Such a long time.
You came to Nanjing by yourself.
After you finish school and graduate, you can go wherever you want.
Don't ruin your future.
I'll tell Lieutenant Colonel to wait a bit longer to bail him out,
so he can spend more time with the Army.
That will teach him a lesson.
Don't look back.
He's not afraid of the Army.
When I was in Nanjing, I took the same train with him.
No wonder he said that it's destiny.
I didn't know him then. He got off the train before I did.
Did you expect to ride with him until the end of the world?
It was good for you that he got off first.
I'm going back to school.
I'll go with you.
It will be safer for you.
Another competition?
Yes.
Han told the commission that the competition wasn't fair.
He wants a high-altitude flying competition.
How childish.
He's just grumpy about not getting the new toys.
Don't drink too much.
-Eat your food. It's getting cold. -Okay.
After Han was done with the commission, he came to my office to declare war...
and brought the trainee list to me.
I've packed up everything we need to go to the States.
So soon.
On this list,
I, the lieutenant colonel, am 34 years old...
and you are 32 years old.
You've been waiting for so long.
I'm sorry.
Thirty-two years old is not so old after all.
Qian-yi, you don't understand.
You are...
not on the list.
They've removed the dependents from the trip to the States...
because of the depreciation.
Under the current exchange rates,
there is only enough money for one person per family to go.
You can go by yourself.
The chief said
it's a good opportunity for you.
I don't want you to give it up.
Finally, I can break away from the smell of the engine oil,
and I can go out with Wei-xun and the other wives.
I don't have to look after the pilots.
Qian-yi.
I promised to take you to the States so you could relax.
If you can't go, I won't go. I won't leave you alone.
I don't have to go to the States to relax.
The sooner you quit flying
and stop living dangerously,
the more relaxed I will feel.
But...
Have another. Here.
Aren't the new airplanes here yet?
They won't be.
The 9th Wing didn't accept the result.
They want to compete again on high-altitude flying.
I won't stand there for you again.
It's not my job. I don't want to be scolded by Lady Qin again.
We will be 7,000 feet in the sky.
I couldn't see you even if you were there.
All I can hear...
is the sound of the radio.
It's very annoying.
My old pals are gone.
They left me with all these strangers.
Zhen.
-Gong. -Hi, Mo-ting.
This is the weather report for tomorrow. It will be a sunny day.
I'll leave you two alone. I've got things to do.
September 18.
It's the same day as last year.
And the same height.
My old pal, the second lieutenant, Zhi-chu Zhang's pulled a prank on me.
I should go visit him.
Come with me the next time.
Was he Bai's husband?
Yes.
The weather will be great tomorrow,
but I'm afraid...
the result won't be so great.
Qing.
Can you please leave? Leave me alone.
If you ignore me, I'll wait for you at your school.
Every day, from day to night, forever and ever.
Every comrade went there to see them. Except you.
Go ahead and run away.
Do you really think you can get away?
I'll kill you.
If it doesn't work, knock Zhen down.
Hurry!
Subtitle translation by Chang Jing