 The film is a tale of revenge and betrayal taking place during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, with a complex narrative structure borrowing heavily from film noir traditions.Lou's next film, "Summer Palace" (2006), a story of two lovers in the backdrop of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, again brought Lou into conflict with Chinese authorities, resulting in a five-year ban for both him and his producer.In order to circumvent the ban, his next film, "Spring Fever", was shot surreptitiously in Nanjing and registered as a Hong Kong-French coproduction to avoid censors.