72 Heroes

Plot

The film takes place in Huizhou, Guangdong, China, October 1900. After failing to assassinate the governor-general by blowing up his mansion as part of the anti-Manchu Huizhou Uprising, revolutionary Shi Jianru is captured and executed. Guangzhou, Guangdong province, 1911: following other unsuccessful uprisings, Pan Dawei, deputy head of the Guangzhou department of the Tongmenghui, arrives by boat and smuggles weapons past customs officers. During a dinner party at the house of wealthy local trader Fang Hongzhi, head of the Guangxing business association, there is an assassination attempt on the Manchu Qing government's Marine Minister Li Zhun, which fails. Among the guests is Luo Zhonghuo, just arrived from Penang, Malaysia, who gets to know Fang's daughter, Huiru, also a revolutionary. Afterwards she takes him to the house of painter Gao Jianfu, head of the Tongmenghui's Guangzhou department. Zhonghuo is carrying a letter from Tongmenghui leader Sun Yat-sen, but neither Jianfu nor Dawei are sure whether he is a spy. To convince them he is genuine, Huiru suggests he tries raising some money for the movement from her father, by first becoming friendly with his cultured longtime mistress Jiang Meixi. Zhonghuo becomes Meixi's English tutor and helps Fang in getting a local gang off of the Guangxing's turf. As Chinese New Year arrives, Gao and Pan plan a mass suicide attack on the governor-general's residence - in what will become known as the Second Guangzhou Uprising of 27 April 1911.

Cast