In Shanghai, Hai-Nan, son of a Chinese official, is found stabbed on the street. But when the culprit, Li-Fang, is apprehended, she refuses to reveal her motives. Meanwhile, a police officer grows suspicious of the officials’ rush to close the case. As he searches for leads in the case files, a shocking truth about Li-Fang is revealed.

Adapted from the “scar literature” of Mainland China, this anti-communist film uses a woman’s drastic change in personality after she is raped by Chinese officials and his son as an allusion to the Mainland’s political corruption. Taiwan was still under martial law at the time the film was made, so setting a story in Shanghai allowed the makers to circumvent Taiwan’s strict censorship laws on sex and violence. It is also worth noting that at that time, the distributors marketed the film around the female lead LU Hsiao-Fen’s sexy image, which was far removed from the film’s essence of social realism and its political message.

DVD source：Taiwan Cinema Toolkit, Ministry of Culture, R.O.C.