The Last Rose of Shanghai

Aiyi returns to her club to get the American money that she has hidden. She’s excited about going to Hong Kong but has second thoughts about leaving her club. When she arrives, a drunken Yamazaki is inside; the dancers and customers are cowering. Yamazaki demands that Aiyi tell him where Ernest is. She lights a cigarette, saying that she doesn’t know and offering Yamazaki his own cigarette, a gift from her new business partner, Sassoon. Her employees cluster around her in protection. She invites Yamazaki to come and see Sassoon’s contract in her office and suggests music to lighten things up. The band gets going, but Yamazaki laughs, telling Aiyi that “[t]he Briton can’t protect” her because soon Japan will triumph (187). He forces Aiyi to kneel, and Lanyu tries to defuse the situation by asking Yamazaki to dance. He shoots Lanyu and the ballroom dissolves into chaos. Cheng and Ying appear, the latter hurling grenades. Aiyi finds a gun in her face and is afraid to die.