Purple Butterfly 2004

In 1928 Manchuria, Japanese translator Hidehiko Itami Tôru Nakamura leaves his Chinese lover, Ding Hui Ziyi Zhang, and returns to Tokyo. Years later, when he arrives in Shanghai, he has become a spy. Meanwhile, Ding Hui witnesses her brother, who ran an anti-Japanese newspaper, being assassinated by the Japanese. She travels to Shanghai, joins an underground resistance called Purple Butterfly, and falls in love with its leader, Xie Ming.

The resistance hatches a plan to strike at a Japanese intelligence officer named Yamamoto, enlisting an assassin from out of town. At a train station, a highly accidental mix-up places a low-level clerk named Szeto across from the real killer on the same car, and Szeto becomes an unwitting focus of the operation. The resistance passes Szeto some materials about the target, and his puzzled, almost chaotic reaction triggers a small crisis that spirals into a larger one. In the ensuing gunfight, Ding Hui accidentally kills Szeto’s girlfriend, Yiling, who had hurried to meet him.

Szeto is briefly captured by Yamamoto’s subordinates, including Itami. Under brutal interrogation, Szeto remains unable to articulate what he truly knows. An informant within the resistance reveals that Szeto is merely a bystander who was pulled into events by chance, and Itami releases him. Nonetheless, the resistance regards Szeto as a potential traitor and decides to erase him.

From outsider to a man entangled in a widening web, Szeto finds himself pursued by both the Japanese secret police and the resistance, unable to explain his presence to either side. Meanwhile, Itami reconnects with his former lover, Ding Hui, and Szeto witnesses their reunion, which deepens his confusion about everything unfolding around him. He is consumed by a thirst for vengeance for Yiling, yet he has no clear target to aim at.

With the real assassin out of circulation, the resistance must take on the mission to kill Yamamoto themselves. Ding Hui stands at a crossroads, torn between Itami and Xie Ming, who lead opposing sides, and her loyalties become a dangerous bargaining chip in the factions’ schemes. Ding Hui accompanies Itami to a gathering at a Japanese club, where the two share a moment of intimacy as they dance. Itami tells her that Yamamoto will not be coming, and that Xie Ming is already dead, a revelation that shocks her. In a sudden turn, Ding Hui stabs Itami. Szeto then bursts into the ballroom, shoots Itami, and pivots his aim toward Ding Hui, leaving the fate of everyone involved hanging in the balance.