Move to the front.
My mom is under investigation.
No one wants to sit close to me.
But we want to know who it was that ratted on us.
-You came in a group to surround me. -Mr. Gu.
I'm not a communist!
You are!
This is what your two friends said about you.
BASED ON PAI HSIEN-YUNG'S WORK A GREAT LITERARY FIGURE OF TAIWAN
Chief.
Director.
-Thank you for coming. -Where's the Commander in Chief?
He has some work to do.
We can start first.
On behalf of the Commander in Chief, I have brought you a gift.
A gift?
What's this?
U.S.-CHINA COOPERATION MERITORIOUS SERVICE TO THE COUNTRY
A retirement souvenir.
Hell, have I just got discharged from the military?
Chief.
Is this how you're telling me that I'm being discharged?
Is it?
Director.
If I may ask,
is this because I acted as a guarantor for my former subordinate?
The headquarters have learned
about you acting as a guarantor.
The headquarters said
that this former communist dedicated his life to the military.
Therefore, his mistakes can be forgiven.
In short, this case has been closed.
-There won't be new problems cropping up. -I see.
You don't have to worry.
Okay, I won't.
I won't be worried.
Then please help me thank the Commander in Chief.
-I'll get going now. -Okay.
Chief, enjoy your food.
Stop.
Please have a seat.
I want to make an application.
My former subordinate,
who has repented,
is now disabled.
I'd like to help him apply for a retirement benefit.
-This... -Don't tell me there are no precedents.
How many people in the Security Bureau that got disbanded
are former communists?
Initially, their positions were unclear.
Then they worked for me.
What happened to them after they got disbanded?
They got every cent they were entitled to.
Rumors say some of them are working with the newspapers
to write anti-communist articles. Is that right?
Is that true?
Yes.
-But... -Great, then.
Thank the Commander in Chief for me.
I don't deserve
such a great honor.
Take it back.
I would like to exchange this
for my former subordinate's retirement benefit.
Chief. This...
This is my last request.
For the country, The horse has been sacrificed
For the country
The treasured bow has been broken
In vain
It's all in vain
I went to your classroom to look for you
and I surprised your classmates.
I'm now a major.
They told me you'd be here.
This used to be the janitor's closet.
It's more peaceful here.
It is pretty peaceful indeed.
I should've gone to work in the mine if I had known.
When I was dismissed from the military,
I almost went to work for the mining company.
Was Gong saying the truth?
That I betrayed Lieutenant Colonel?
Yes, it's true.
I repaired the runway with the 5th Wing yesterday.
The lieutenant colonel wasn't around.
Their sergeant invited me for lunch at their lieutenant colonel's office.
I didn't want to join them.
That's why I've come to see you.
Now that I'm here with you,
I feel relieved.
The lieutenant colonel of the 5th Wing was our lieutenant colonel's classmate.
He was my senior pilot.
Lieutenant Colonel's case was shared in a circular as a deterrent.
The pilots
who graduated from the same school as his
are unhappy that he got betrayed.
His former instructors, colleagues and the captain
who used to fight together with him
want to seek justice for him
by giving me a good beating.
Why don't you just leave the military and start a new life?
Because I'm a coward.
I'm scared of starting from scratch.
I'm scared of losing everything.
I'll just tolerate it for another 20 years.
Then I will get a retirement gratuity.
Then you'll just be living a meaningless life.
It's my duty to live a meaningless life.
I did betray the lieutenant colonel.
I admit it.
But I have no regrets.
If it were to happen again,
if they interrogated me
when I arrived in Taiwan,
I would still do the same thing.
I had to take care of my priorities.
What happened when you first came to Taiwan?
They conducted a background check on us.
When the 11th Wing retreated from the battle in Dongbei,
we should've been sentenced by the military law.
If I were single,
I would go to prison.
I wouldn't write a single word in the confession letter.
But I'm responsible for you and your mom.
That's why I chose to live a meaningless life.
Mom and I have ruined your life.
That nurse's as well.
Can I start afresh?
I don't think so.
It's just like going to war with the other pilots.
I can't foresee what I would run into.
No matter what happens, I just have to keep fighting.
If I lose,
I can't blame it on anyone else.
What if you could do this again
without me and my mom?
Then we'd have to go way back.
I wouldn't have entered flight school,
become a pilot,
gotten a girlfriend.
Then I would be working in a mine.
I wouldn't have betrayed my lieutenant colonel.
You, your mom and Vice-Captain Jin
would be leading a happy life.
Then who would be taking care of you?
I don't need anyone.
I'm fine being single.
I would just be digging mines.
You don't even know how to build a house.
When you came to the village with the land surveyors the other day,
you even held the drawing upside down.
A sergeant had to show you how to read it.
Goodness.
Once the house is built,
you and your mom will have a comfortable place to live in.
I'm not as capable as your father.
That's all I can do.
Give me that piece of meat.
You need to dig a mine. I need to plant a tree.
The entire school will be planting trees in the afternoon.
What's going to happen in the future?
Uncle Jiang has many classmates.
Don't worry.
As long as you and your mom don't look down on me,
I will have no fear.
The 11th Wing doesn't exist anymore.
After the shuffling, they will get a new number.
I'm sorry, sir.
I betrayed the 11th Wing.
Calm down.
You have told the superiors
about what I did.
So, it's all over.
Oh, right.
When I gave my thumbprint,
I saw Zhen and the others.
I used to deny
that I feared I would forget them.
But now I know.
I caused their deaths.
I won't forget every single one of their names.
What you guys said was the truth.
You didn't make any mistake.
You didn't betray me.
Zhi-jian.
I fear that when I'm no longer around,
their names would disappear.
Here you go.
I pass the 11th Wing to you.
Come on.
I will never forget them.
I will never forget you guys.
Thank you, Qian-yi, for not resenting me.
Zhi-jian and Gong.
The 11th Wing will always be a family.
It's ridiculous that we act like strangers
when we encounter one another.
Come on!
Those who wrote letters to the mainland
have all been transferred.
Qing helped them.
I wonder if she's okay.
She's now in the U.S.
-She's fine. -Don't bring up the past again.
We will visit her when we're free.
I mean, we will visit her in the U.S.
In the U.S.
Come on, Gong.
Zhi-jian.
They're here!
Qian-yi! They're here!
Hurry up!
Chief, you didn't drive today? Did you walk here?
Chief.
-Come in. -Okay.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Wei-cheng Jiang
had meritorious achievements
in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
This medal is presented to you as a token
of appreciation for your service.
Thank you, Chief.
I've always wanted to go and see you.
But I feared I would be a burden to you. Therefore...
Don't worry about it.
Qian-yi, take Wei-cheng back in to rest.
I will come back again soon.
I knew it.
I knew they would be cheap.
Chief.
Isn't this medal an acknowledgement of completion of service?
Yes.
They'll never give him recognition for his contribution.
They were offset by his faults. They cancel each other out.
That's what a serviceman who has repented gets.
This is the best he can get.
Did you bring what I told you to?
Yes. It's here.
I applied for his retirement benefit.
They determined the amount he's entitled to using the old Taiwan dollar.
Plus, they didn't even factor in his service in Dongbei,
but only up to the time when we defeated the Japanese.
They are giving only 5,000. What the hell?
What kind of finance department is that?
Here's 15,800.
It's what a lieutenant colonel should get when he retires.
-Chief. -Sit down.
Why didn't I see your car?
The car?
I'm leaving the military soon.
I'm no longer an official.
Why would I have a car?
I dragged you down with me.
You only realized that now?
When we were in Nanjing,
I asked you to join the staff
to get close to the chief so you could share information with me.
You didn't want to do it.
Qian-yi is also to blame
because she cut your passport.
You refused to take the job.
Of course, I then lost my promotion opportunity.
In a month,
when the handover is complete,
I will be free.
Don't follow in my footsteps.
I regretted giving them the names of my two friends.
Don't regret.
You'll be free after you leave this place.
You can cry as hard as you want.
Just like my two sisters.
Don't forget to help me send the letter.
Hurry up.
The prison notified me
that before the judgement is handed down,
I just have to name two communist spies to secure my release.
Yesterday I was told
that I am innocent but someone has framed me.
Therefore, I only have to provide one name.
Since I was locked up, neither of you has come to visit me.
I hope that you would come to the prison
and give me guidance.
We have to go and see her.
She will rat out one of us.
An eye for an eye.
What are you talking about?
I will buy some things and bring them for her.
Are you planning to tell her to accuse me
so that you can escape?
Who can escape?
Do you still recognize me?
I don't wear makeup anymore.
I have short hair now.
Qing.
We got scared.
-We thought you had left for the U.S. -You got scared?
When your husbands were at war,
the phone rang every day.
People put up posters every day.
Yet, you didn't get scared.
You didn't get scared.
You did whatever you had to for the sake of your husbands.
Whose idea was it?
Who?
-Me. -Both of us.
I always thought about you two.
After I found Zhen in Dongbei,
I lost everything.
I was at my wits' end.
But I always thought of the two of you.
You gave me a sense of direction.
So I came to Taiwan.
But I got off track.
I'm ashamed to face the two of you.
I bathed with the Americans.
I would go home exhausted every day.
Those baths stripped off my face and skin.
Then I recalled somebody had told me something.
"Remember to come and look for us."
That gave me some energy
to live on.
But I ended up being betrayed by both of you.
Have you come here today
to repent
or to ask for my forgiveness?
Repenting is a sincere act.
Even if there's retribution, you won't have any complaint.
That's not the case of asking for my forgiveness.
Do you want me to show mercy
and let go of Wei-cheng and Zhi-jian?
As expected,
a low-class person like me can never enter the world of socialites.
I ended up entering a detention center!
I heard them saying
Wei-cheng and Zhi-jian are both all right.
You've come to see me
just to buy insurance from me.
I sell everything
but insurance.
We are the way we are now
because of those pilots.
So,
why don't I
make those two pilots go to prison as well?
No!
No, Qing!
Qing.
I beg you.
Wei-cheng can't go to prison.
Those pilots have been a burden to us throughout our lives.
-Stand up for yourself! -Silence!
The statements by both of you...
I asked for them from my interrogator and read them numerous times.
I haven't been able
to put your faces
to the names of the two women who betrayed me.
Then I realized.
My two sisters are bullying me.
Once upon a time, one of the sisters
sacrificed her pilot husband in order to secure my release.
Where's that sister of mine?
Where has she gone?
I want my two sisters
to lose appetite and have trouble sleeping.
Suffer more than what I have to go through in jail.
I have forgotten the names of my two sisters.
Please tell me your names.
Say it.
-Qin... -Louder!
Qian-yi Qin.
Wei-xun Zhou.
Qian-yi Qin.
Wei-xun Zhou.
Qian-yi Qin, Wei-xun Zhou!
You are my two sisters!
Silence!
Officer.
These are my two sisters.
I don't have any relatives now.
I have two enemies.
I want to pick one of them.
I want to pick one enemy.
Where did you go running around these few days?
Did you visit Qing?
What did you say to her?
I'm going to look for a place.
Do you want to move?
Do you want me to stay here in fear?
Qing got really angry the other day.
I fear she would come for us.
I'm not worried about her ratting me out. I deserve it.
But Wei-cheng needs someone to take care of him.
He finally got his retirement benefit.
I want to move out.
Let's not contact each other anymore.
Let's not contact each other anymore?
She will pick one of us.
I fear that she will pick you
and rat you out.
Because of Zhi-jian, you might rat me out.
I can't leave Wei-cheng alone.
You're preempting my move.
We've done everything we could
for our husbands.
I have no choice but to be cautious of you.
Now you're cautious of me.
You're partly responsible for what happened to Qing.
Don't you have nothing to do with this?
All right, then.
If something happens to me tomorrow, I won't rat you out.
I will just tell people that I don't know you.
In three days, take Wei-cheng and move out!
If you were now in prison
and someone brought up Zhi-jian and Mo-ting
to make you give them a name,
wouldn't you give it to them?
RENAI EAST VILLAGE
Wei-cheng!
Wei-cheng.
Mrs. Wu!
Did the Military Police come by?
-Wei-cheng. -Qian-yi.
Where did you go?
I didn't see you
after class.
So, I went to look for you in school.
I told them
I'm Qin's husband.
When they saw me,
they got so scared.
It was as if they saw a communist spy.
I know.
You got fired a long time ago.
Since the day I was escorted by the Military Police.
I didn't want to be a teacher anymore.
The International Phonetic Alphabet.
I can't seem to get the hang of it.
We're obsolete.
Obsolete?
Zhi-jian said
the 11th Wing will switch to jets.
They're phasing out the Mustangs.
I found a place to rent.
I've just signed the rental agreement.
One bedroom and one living room. It costs 300 TWD per month.
That much?
Why is it so expensive?
I lied to the landlord that I'm single.
She thought I work at a nightclub.
That's why she raised the rent.
But I think this house is pretty good.
One bedroom and one living room.
It's far away from here.
That's just perfect.
It costs 300 TWD per month.
We'll spend all the benefit in two years.
Don't worry. I will get a job.
Let's go and check out our new house.
Coincidentally, I was thinking of tidying up the place.
Go without me.
I can't move around freely.
I will just be a burden to you.
Go without me.
Okay.
I will be back before dinnertime.
Qian-yi.
You're better off single.
I'm a burden to you.
Wei-cheng Jiang.
Don't be an embarrassment.
Don't be a burden to others.
Wei-cheng.
"Qian-yi.
I can't live with being a burden to you.
I will leave now.
Let's not be husband and wife in our next lives.
Instructor of the Central Aviation School,
Lieutenant Colonel, Wei-cheng Jiang."
Is your father taking measurements?
Yes, at the village entrance.
He seems clueless about measuring. He's been doing it over and over again.
Collect the relief supplies.
Bring ours to Lady Qin.
What's that?
The brochure for the teaching qualifications exam.
I bought it from school.
I was thinking of asking Lady Qin to apply.
Don't worry about it. She got fired a long time ago.
The Military Police came a few times.
Can she still be a teacher?
They're moving.
But I didn't see them leaving the house.
Go.
Ask her to give you her address.
Don't tell her it's for me.
Also get your father to come home for a meal.
Lady Qin.
Uncle Jiang.
Mom!
Gong, call an ambulance!
-Wei-cheng. -Sir!
What happened. Wei-cheng?
-Let's go. -Sir!
-Hurry up! -Zhi-jian, he's gone.
Ambulance, hurry up!
Come on, don't leave us.
-Wei-cheng! -Lift him up.
Gong, get an ambulance!
Please hang in there. I will take you to the hospital now.
Gong, get an ambulance!
Qian-yi.
It's time.
Chief.
Thank you.
I'm sure Wei-cheng can see all this.
He was my life.
Now I'm left with nothing.
I wonder what his life is like now.
Qian-yi.
Have his teammates come to take him with them?
Qian-yi, please take things easy.
Wei-cheng was with the 11th Wing and the flight school.
He wasn't a rookie like Zhi-jian.
I'm sure he won't get lost.
CHIEF REN-XIAN FAN
CHIEF YONG-BIN REN
All of them are leaving.
You're here.
Lady Qin.
Have a seat.
Do you have any wine?
Let's have some wine.
The 11th Wing
haven't gotten together for a meal like this in ages.
Mo-ting, go and get the wine.
Lady Qin.
I'm going to the U.S. for training.
Gond will be transferred to the vehicle squadron.
The entire world will be switching to jets eventually.
I'm already old.
I can't repair planes anymore.
-Gong. -Lady Qin.
You don't know anyone in the vehicle squadron.
Don't boast about having worked in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
I won't.
I will be good.
I won't steal spare parts anymore.
Zhao-jun.
You're the only person from the 11th Wing
who's going to the U.S.
You have to go.
Tell us what it's like in the U.S.
Your lieutenant colonel
had always wanted to go to the U.S.
Here.
Here's a toast to you.
Please take care.
Thanks for taking care of your lieutenant colonel.
I thank you on behalf of Wei-cheng.
-Gong. -Let's eat.
Colonel.
Let's say goodbye here.
Mo-ting.
Please keep this name tag for me.
ZHAO-JUN GU
Remember to wait for my return.
RENAI EAST VILLAGE
Salute!
The 11th Wing!
You are dismissed!
Remembering Shierlang.
The author, Yu Han,
used the techniques of narration and description of emotions,
to reminisce his childhood friend, Shierlang.
When they were younger,
they went through thick and thin together.
The verse you just read...
Hey!
Mo-ting Shao.
Are you daydreaming?
Read the next verses.
"We couldn't meet in death.
I will not be laid to rest in his grave.
I've angered the Gods
and caused your premature death.
My disobedience and selfishness
kept us from nurturing each other in life
and protecting the memories after death.
One is over the horizon.
The other lies in a corner of the world."
Mandarin textbooks in those days
talked about death a lot.
There were many mourning texts.
These texts made the deceased
look like they were perfect.
The Uncle Jiang that I knew was not perfect.
The worst part is
that he didn't know that.
He worked very hard
to be the perfect lieutenant colonel
in the eyes of others.
Just like my relatives, friends
and Qing who went to the U.S.
Uncle Jiang had many flaws.
Therefore, you won't find them
in the textbook.
Because the 11th Wing
had many flaws,
it was disbanded after Uncle Jiang's departure.
"Cursed if you know.
Cursed if you don't.
Oh, alas.
Accept my offerings."
The airport.
I stopped going there.
My two godmothers are not communist spies.
They are dependents of the Air Force.
I will keep you company in this prison forever.
Go to hell!
They were Air Force officers. The country wouldn't do that.
I wrote a letter to the President.
Someone wants to catch me.
Ever since your days in Nanjing.
You were already a communist spy.
Just write it out.
You will be released after you finish writing.
-Mom! -Mo-ting!
Mom!
Hurry!
Subtitle translation by Hui Hsing