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It’s the year 1930. Xu Wenqiang was expelled from his university when he was captured by the police during a protest. That was the last time he saw his university love, Xiao Yun. After he got out of prison, he went to Shanghai. He quickly got in touch with Xiao Yun again. But soon he found out that she had changed. She was now the woman of Shanghai’s mob boss, Mr. Feng Gengyao, the most powerful man in Shanghai. After Wenqiang got off the train in Shanghai, he unexpectedly saved a pretty lady, Feng Chengcheng. At that time, he didn’t know that he would later fall in love with her. Chengcheng was the daughter of Mr. Feng. Mr. Feng helped Wenqiang and his best friend Ding Li become powerful men in Shanghai Bund. Wenqiang was always reluctant to follow Mr. Feng’s orders, for he was extremely principled and righteous. Finally, when Wenqiang found out that Mr.Feng was helping the Japanese smuggle drugs into China, he turned against Mr. Feng. As a result, the Japanese wanted to kill Wenqiang because he’d become a danger to them. They waited for him at Xiao Yun’s house. He didn’t die that day, but lost Xiao Yun when she shielded him from a bullet. He killed the leader who killed Xiao Yun and then destroyed all the drugs. Later Mr. Feng and the Japanese sent more assassins to kill Wenqiang and it was also the time that Wenqiang was supposed to marry Chengcheng. He let Chengcheng choose between him and her father and when he heard that Chengcheng had chosen her father for his own protection, he fled to Hong Kong and started a new life there. He married a woman and almost had a child. However Mr. Feng found out about Wenqiang and his marriage he sent assassins to kill Wenqiang and his family. His family died and Wenqiang returned to Shanghai to seek revenge…

A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play, even though he's a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina (Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki. Off stage the cast's possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast's feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love is not meant to be both on and off stage, love turns into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy. - Written by Toronto International Film Festival