Still from Liu Yunlong's WWII espionage film East Wind, Rain [CRI]

Chinese actor-director Liu Yunlong's espionage film East Wind, Rain will open in China on April 22.

During World War II, Japan allegedly prearranged coded weather forecasts to alert its diplomats overseas of ensuing attacks on a foreign country. "North wind, cloudy" would mean the Soviet Union; "West wind, clear" Britain; "East wind, rain" the United States, or more specifically, Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Although some historians argue that Japan's "wind" code never was the intelligence indicator that it first appeared, Chinese actor-director Liu Yunlong has used this WWII story as a background for his directorial debut film, "East Wind, Rain", which is set in Shanghai before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This 1941 Shanghai is filled with spies working for different countries and organizations. An Ming, a Chinese agent, works undercover as a pianist in a local pub. He decodes the "East Wind, Rain" message and tries to pass along the intelligence.

Still from Liu Yunlong's WWII espionage film East Wind, Rain [CRI]

Director Liu Yunlong, who plays An Ming, has starred in a couple of films but is best known for acting in and directing TV suspense dramas.

Plot Against, a three-chapter espionage TV series starring and directed by Liu, received high ratings and rave reviews when it hit small screens in 2005.

Directing his first film, Liu says he wants to make it as flawless as possible. "This movie will show my affinity for espionage stuff, in an exquisite way," he says.

Liu is approaching that goal scrupulously, as evidenced by the effort put into filming just the opening four minutes of the film: The opening scene of "East Wind, Rain" took 20 days to shoot and involved nearly 3,500 extras, half of them foreigners, meaning Liu had to hire ten translators to help him.

East Wind, Rain also stars Fan Bingbing, Yu Rongguang, Li Xiaoran, and Wang Baoqiang.

The film will open in China on April 22.

Editor's note:

Director: Liu Yunlong

Cast: Liu Yunlong, Fan Bingbing, Yu Rongguang, Li Xiaoran, Wang Baoqiang

Genre: Drama/Espionage

Release Date (Chinese mainland): April 22, 2010