1928年，伪满洲国的日本翻译伊丹英彦（仲村亨）离开中国情人丁慧（章子怡）返回日本，数年后他再回中国来到上海时，变身高级特务。而此时丁慧已成为地下抗日组织的成员，并与该组织首领谢明（冯远征）相爱。抗日组织去火车站接从外地聘请的暗杀日本情报人员山本的杀手时，误认其为小职员司徒（刘烨），混乱中，丁慧杀死司徒女友依玲（李冰冰），司徒则被伊丹英彦抓获。
对一系列遭遇无比迷惑的司徒被释放后，发誓要为依玲报仇。丁慧与伊丹英彦重逢，成为两股势力互相设局要利用的重要棋子，她本人正为误杀无辜饱受内心折磨。某个日本会所举办的舞会上，伊丹英彦告诉丁慧山本与谢明均已死，丁慧震惊想刺杀伊丹英彦之际，司徒持枪闯进舞会。

阿西（贾宏声 饰）和李欣（马晓晴 饰）是一对感情十分要好的情侣，周末父母不在家的日子是两人最快活的时光。可是，很快，他们甜蜜的秘密便曝光了，阿西找到了告密的罪魁祸首，没想到却在愤怒之中失手将其打死，等待着阿西的，将会是漫长的牢狱之灾。
阿西的入狱让李欣的情感备受伤害，就在这个节骨眼上，她遇见了名为拉拉（王志文 饰）的男子，拉拉温柔的陪伴逐渐治愈了李欣心中的伤口，两人之间的距离越来越近。阿西出狱了，自觉感情遭到了背叛的他用暴力赶跑了拉拉，之后，拉拉经朋友介绍成为了乐队的主唱，在乐队中，他看到了当时年轻人们空虚又消极的一面。一日乐队演出，心中郁结难消的阿西想要去砸场子，被李欣制止，而此时李欣的精神已经濒临崩溃的边缘。

IN SHANGHAI
In Shanghai Lou Ye, 2001
short Film
In Shanghai or the eyes of a Chinese director of his city, Shanghai, Communist economic center , but also megalopolis with many faces ...
Lou Ye is a great filmmaker. After having the success that we know for the sublime Suzhou River, the young director of the sixth generation is coupled to the design of this short film about Shanghai, the city of his heart , beautiful and multicultural . Camera in hand ( for lovers is a Sony DSR- PD150 DVCam ... ) for subjective , Lou Ye rhyme begins this urban plan by a girl asleep on a bed. Slowly the camera moves out of the suburb where this unknown young woman is given the arms of Morpheus , better visit this city that is Shanghai. The narrator who is also the hero says in voice-over that he loves this megalopolis . It focuses on the residents of these neighborhoods without cloth and without resources where most of the native population of Shanghai Lodge . Indeed the streets Zongshan Donglu which contains the Bund, Pudong, the famous Oriental Pearl is not the stock market and everyone. We must go farther Jingan District to discover the social wealth of this city . Why attach immense cold and nervous architectures while the Shanghai Blood flows through the veins of its rural ? It's a little message Lou Ye through this short film .
"You can guess who they are, but we can never really know "
Lou Ye eradicates a rare cinematic power of this often precarious and old people waiting on the bus every morning to go to work and make the Chinese economy humming .
The old streets of the city like the nearby temple Cheung Hong Bund to the bank of the Huangpu , the filmmaker does not recognize the city. As if all these steel towers of the 21st century had absorbed the social essence of the " Paris of the East" .
Lou Ye then takes us on a visit to the arcades , discos, clubs, dances, flashy locations and disconnected from the reality of ordinary people in the middle of poverty which is near workers and street vendors where people drown their defecation in water by putting the edge of an old tub ... This is a new look for the Western .
Finally, after making stops in a dangerous Shanghai streets by night , the hero wakes up in the morning director in a corner near buildings unsafe and fixed on the face of a shy child , concluding : "The only thing that matters is Shanghai . "
By these words Mr. Lou Ye, I bear you my esteem .

20世纪90年代初，中国社会正经历着一场前所未有的巨大变革。人们的思想发生转变，商品社会的气息扑面而来。这场改革大潮，似乎正席卷着社会上下每一个角落。蜗居在美术学院的青年教师夫妇冬（刘小东 饰）和春（喻红 饰）多年来过着枯燥、单调、乏味的生活。这两个高中时代就交往的恋人，早已被程式化的生活磨去激情。然而，随着改革大潮的到来，他们如死水般的心也开始活泛起来。郁郁不得志的冬一心将画作卖到海外，赚取美金；春则和远在美国的前男友保持联系，时刻准备抛弃当下的一切，远赴异国他乡开辟一片新的天地。死寂的生活令人绝望，他们的心飞向各自的彼岸……
本片荣获1994年希腊塞萨洛尼基电影节金亚历山大奖。

中国南方城市，建设委员会主任唐奕杰在一次拆迁纠纷冲突中意外坠楼身亡。年轻警官杨家栋开始调查，发现唐奕杰坠楼案与和他过从甚密的紫金企业负责人姜紫成，还有几年前紫金企业合伙人阿云失踪案都有着密切的关系。调查过程中，杨家栋被设局陷害，遭到停职。失踪的阿云则听说现身在命案现场。

同样以命案开场，娄烨继《浮城谜事》后再度以悬疑类型为体裁，时序横跨近三十年，足迹遍及两岸三地，透过一段三角关系，讲述了一段中国改革开放背景下，个人和家庭的命运轨迹。他亦透过今昔交错的叙事时序，巧妙暗示人物关系与推动剧情。摄影师包轩鸣首次与娄烨合作，捕捉了在钱、权、欲快速膨胀且空虚迷失的时代里，迷离又暧昧的人物关系。