Shanghai Vice: Betrayal

'One of the most important documentary series of the year. A one-man operation. After three years of negotiation, revealing a China never seen before in or out of China. A truly revelatory, finely crafted documentary.' - (Mike Fentiman, UK National Coordinator, INPUT) Betrayal, the opening film in the series Shanghai Vice, embraces Shanghai´s past and present, as the city begins to re-establish itself as the pre-eminent centre in Asia. There is a new mood of openness and change, bringing opportunities, challenges and traumas. Shanghai´s glittering but decadent past is recalled through a glamorous woman, now in her 60s, who remembers the high life of the 1940s and the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. Having been widowed, she has several admirers and faces a difficult dilemma. The audience also goes behind the scenes, with unprecedented access, at Shanghai´s elite Criminal Intelligence Unit. Charting the mounting campaign against the increasing threat of drugs, the film reveals the tactics of undercover police operations and engages with the victims of this insidious trade. The film ends with the 'turning' of a heroin dealer into a police informant and sets the stage for a major police operation in the next episode, Betrayal II.