The Message (2009 film)


The Message is a 2009 espionage thriller set in 1942 Nanking, featuring a cast of top Chinese stars. The film was adapted from Mai Jia's 2007 novel, The Message, and was co-directed by Chen Kuo-fu and Gao Qunshu.
Despite being a blockbuster, The Message has received extensive critical praise and was nominated for a total of thirteen awards at the 2009 Golden Horse Film Festival, 2010 Asian Film Awards, 2010 Hong Kong Film Awards, and 2010 Hundred Flowers Awards. It won the best film award at 17th Beijing University Student Film Festival. Li Bingbing won the Best Leading Actress Award at the 46th Golden Horse Film Awards for her role as the code-breaker chief in this movie.

Plot

April 26, 1940, former Nationalist vice president Wang Jingwei made peace with Japan and set up a Japanese-supported regime during World War II, a puppet government in Nanking. Oct 10, during an anniversary ceremony of the government, a Wang government high official was assassinated, the last in a series of such attacks. Taketa, chief intelligence officer of the Japanese Imperial Army, believed that it was an action of an underground anti-Japan group and that there was a mole, nicknamed "Old Ghost" inside the Wang government's Anti-Communist Command.
Determined to catch the mole, Taketa sends out a telegram with false information about an opportunity to assassinate a high ranking officer. When it is apparent that the underground group knows its contents, he arrests the five personnel who saw the telegram, bringing them to the closely guarded fortress Qiu Castle for interrogation. They are:
Anti-Communist squad captain Wu Zhiguo,
Bai Xiaonian, an aide to the commander,
chief telegraph decoder Li Ningyu,
mailroom staff Gu Xiaomeng, and
military intelligence director Jin Shenghuo
Taketa and Wang Government's intelligence chief Wang Tianxiang need to identify "Old Ghost" in five days. After the suspects are tormented by constant interrogations, they began informing against each other for their own survival. Increasingly horrific physical tortures are used as the interrogators become impatient, while the tormented suspects come close to losing their sanity. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese espionage agent attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.

Casting

Main cast

The film earned at the Chinese box office.