The Best Secret Agent

Director: Zhang Ying

1964 / 102min / DCP

The movie that lit the fuse on an explosion of espionage thrillers in Taiwan, Zhang’s box-office phenomenon is a twisty tale of star-crossed love and sabotage during the years of the Sino-Japanese war, featuring Bai Hong as a refugee from the marauding Japanese who land in Shanghai, Ke Junxiong as the man she falls for, and Tian Qing as the collaborationist stooge of the puppet Manchukuo state that she reluctantly marries—his schemes constantly undermined by the actions of a mysterious “Secret Agent Heaven No. 1.” A spry, stylish, sexy cloak-and-dagger melodrama, based on a homonymous 1945 film from the Mainland, with Hong a delight as she dons several walk-in closets’ worth of disguises.

© 1964 Wan Shou Film Company / 2015 Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.

2K digital restorations courtesy of Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute

Part of Taiyupian Spy Games