who, with his traditional clothing, hairstyle, mannerisms and sheltered life, finds himself out of place in the modern city. The triad reveals Zhongliang's complicity to the Woman of Zephyr Lane while Ruyi looks on. The Woman of Zephyr Lane demands to know if Zhongliang ever loved her, a question Zhongliang can't answer due to the abuse suffered in his childhood. The Woman of Zephyr Lane throws herself off the balcony and as the others flee, Ruyi tends to her corpse. Biggie bemoans the permanent loss of Zhongliang as a tool. Dressed in contemporary Shanghai clothing, Ruyi confronts Zhongliang, and repeatedly asks if Zhongliang loved her or The Woman of Zephyr Lane. Zhongliang is still unable to answer. Duanwu, cracking under the pressure of the masculine role beaten into him, rapes Ruyi. A reversal of roles Ruyi thereupon returns to the Pang estate, but things have changed. First, Ruyi learns that her childhood betrothal, Jingyun (David Wu) has returned. Jingyun informs Ruyi that their initial betrothal had been ended by his family due to Ruyi's opium addiction, but that he had returned on his own. Zhongliang, too, returns upon learning of Jingyun's return desperately tries to win Ruyi back. Blinded by jealousy and anger, Zhongliang poisons Ruyi (in the same manner that he had poisoned his abusive brother-in-law, it is here confirmed). Shortly afterwards, he is gunned down on the dock by the triad. Duanwu, who is no longer the passive cousin he was earlier in the film is proclaimed as the new head of the Pang clan in an elaborate ancestral ceremony. Ruyi, meanwhile, is shown tied to a chair, destroyed as a result of smoking arsenic laced opium. In the final scene, we see Zhongliang, Duanwu and Ruyi as children; standing in the doorway on the night of the Emperor's abdication. Cast Gong Li as Pang Ruyi, the only daughter and ruler of the Pang clan. Kevin Lin as Pang Duanwu, a distant cousin to Pang Ruyi. Leslie Cheung as Yu Zhongliang, the brother-in-law to Ruyi. He Saifei as Yu Xiuyi, Zhongliang's sister. Zhou Ye Mang as Pang Zhengda, Ruyi's brother and husband to Yu Xiuyi; Patrick Tse as Biggie, a Triad boss who employs Zhongliang as a gigolo in his extortion schemes Zhou Jie as Woman on Zephyr Lane, Zhongliang develops a personal attachment to this woman who the Boss wishes to blackmail. David Wu as Jingyun, Ruyi's