
In 1930's Shanghai, Wu Sunpu, chief executive of the Shanghai Yuhua Silk Company, faces many struggles: with plant workers, with strikers, others in his industry, and most of all with bourgeois comprador Zhao Botao. Capitalists and other figures in Shanghai's industrial and commercial community come and go. The strategy finally comes down between Wu and Zhao. Zhao plans to take over Wu Sunpu's plant with support from Americans. Wu faces a choice of surrender to Zhao or bankruptcy. He considers suicide, but decides to go on vacation with his wife on Mount Lushan. When they leave Shanghai at midnight, Wu paces the deck of the ship, reviewing his life and fate.
Directed by Sang Hu, Midnight leans on a strong ensemble — Li Rentang, Qiao Qi, Han Fei — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.
The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1981.
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