While attending a luxurious charity gala in Tokyo with his beautiful assistant,suave Hong Kong Interpol agent Xiao Jinhan interrupts a secret transaction between international art smugglers and steals back a stolen cultural relic. This enrages the criminal mastermind behind the deal, Toshio Yamamoto, who retaliates by tricking Xiao into killing his assistant and framing him for the gruesome murder of the Mainland Chinese agents assisting him. Suspecting that Xiao might be a double agent, the Hong Kong Interpol places him in solitary confinement from the outside world for three years, pending further investigation.
Oblivious to Xiao’s plight, Xiao’s girlfriend Lin Yuyan, a Harvard graduate who works for PICC, desperately attempts to contact him after discovering she is pregnant with his child. Deeply hurt when she fails to contact him, she decides to keep the baby nonetheless and gives birth to a son, Xiao Bao.
Meanwhile, the Mainland Chinese police are convinced that Xiao is innocent and arrange a fake funeral for him, after which Xiao leaves his old life and disappears from society altogether, residing on a desert island.
“Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” is a priceless Chinese landscape painting by the famous Yuan Dynasty artist Huang Gongwang. During the Qing Dynasty it was partially destroyed in a fire and separated into two halves: the Wuyongshi scroll is on display at the Taipei Palace Museum in Taiwan while the Shengshan scroll is kept at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Mainland China. 361 years after their separation, China’s Vice Premier, Wen Jiabao, arranges a joint exhibition of both halves of the painting at the Taipei Palace Museum. The Shengshan scroll alone is insured for over 10 billion dollars. Art criminals across the globe hear wind of the exhibition and a race to steal the masterpiece begins.
Behind his handsome and refined façade, Japanese aristocrat Toshio is a twisted and macabre sadomasochist with an Oedipus complex. During the Second World War, his grandfather died trying to obtain the painting. Vowing to stop at nothing to steal the scroll and fulfill his grandfather’s last wish, he has trained 12 beautiful but deadly female assassins for the task: The Zodiac Girls.
After the Wuyongshi scroll is found missing from the Taipei Palace Museum, the police in Zhejiang Province are ordered to increase security measures for the Shengshan scroll and to assist the Taiwanese police in finding the stolen scroll. Lin receives orders from PICC Headquarters to assist the protection of the Shengshan scroll while Xiao is ordered to leave his desert island, find out who stole the Wuyongshi scroll and steal it back.
In Hangzhou, Xiao discovers criminal elements from the UK, Japan and Mainland China all convening at Fish-head Bar. Nicknamed the Empress, the bar owner is a mysterious woman involved with all types of shady customers and selling sensitive information about the Shengshan scroll to the highest bidder.
While Lin is supervising an operation to move the Shengshan scroll, her heavily armed convoy is ambushed by the Zodiac Girls. However, during the ruffle, the scroll falls into the hands of the UK Gang, only to be stolen by Xiao with a perfect escape.
Toshio then orders his lover, Lisa, to find out who stole the scroll and get it back. Lisa uses her powers of seduction to get close to Xiao, who discovers that she is none other than the assistant he “killed” all those years ago. He realizes he has been played.
Feeling deeply responsible for the loss of the Shengshan scroll, Lin heads an investigation into who stole it and is surprised to find that all the evidence points to one person: Xiao Jinhan, her son’s father, back from the dead!
To coerce Xiao into handing over the scroll, Toshio kidnaps Lin’s son and threatens to kill him if he does not comply. Xiao cannot but hand over the scroll, rescuing Lin and her son.
Toshio then asks the Empress to use her contacts to smuggle the Shengshan scroll out of China into Dubai where Lisa completes the transaction and obtains the scroll. Late at night, Xiao visits Lisa in an attempt to steal back the scroll but both Lisa and Xiao are attacked by the UK Gang. As if things weren’t complicated enough already, Lin suddenly appears out of nowhere.
Lin, Xiao and Lisa form a strange love triangle. Each of them is after the scroll, suspicious of the others’ motives, and hiding deep emotions from the others; but they are also forced to work as a team against a common enemy: The Brits.
A battle that takes them into the depths of the Arabian desert and up to the heights of the Burj Khalifa ensues. Although they steal back the Wuyongshi scroll from the Brits, Lisa manages to snatch it from Xiao and Lin finally and escapes to Tokyo.
Xiao and Lin fly to Tokyo. A final bloody battle for the scroll in the Yamamoto’s ancestral home sees Xiao and Lin test their skills against the Zodiac Girls and Toshio….
Synopsis
When a joint exhibition of the famous Yuan Dynasty scroll “Dwelling in the FuchunMountains” attracts the attention of nefarious art enthusiasts on the international black-market, both yakuza and English thugs scramble to steal it.
Xiao Jinhan (Andy Lau), an Interpol agent with a tainted past, is assigned to the mission entitled “Art of War.” He determines to do anything to protect the scroll and clear his name. Meanwhile, PICC agent Lin Yuyan (Zhang Jingchu) is also entrusted with the task of protecting the masterpiece, but things soon get much more personal than she bargains for.
Sent by the yakuza to seduce Xiao Jinhan, the mysterious temptress Lisa (Chiling Lin) is every man’s dream: a Carmen and a chameleon; but deep down inside she is empty and lonely. The mastermind behind this yakuza operation is the coldblooded criminal Toshio Yamamoto (Tong Dawei), who spares no expense exploring the depths of depravity to indulge his sadism. He too will stop at nothing to possess the painting.
Xiao’s adventure will take him over seas and across deserts. Will he accomplish his mission and clear his name? Will Lin Yuyan and Xiao find their lost love on the banks of Hangzhou’s romantic WestLake? Lisa might be able to escape almost certain death in Dubai, but will she escape the fate that Toshio has planned for her and find a new life outside his manipulative grasp?
The outcome of this battle to the death, one fueled by both love and hatred, will be revealed as we unfurl the scroll “Dwelling in the FuchunMountains.”
