Japanese-occupied China was a place of immense violence and constant intrigues. We invited Carl Zha to talk about the 2007 film Lust, Caution and the real-life events that inspired the movie. We glide through the history of Sino-Japanese relations, the reasons for China’s pitiable situation at the turn of the 20th century, and the greatest real life version of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain” of the 20th century, the ill-fated story of Wang Jingwei and his collaborationist regime.