Paradise in Service

In 1969, Lo Pao-tai arrives as a new ROC Army conscript and is thrust into the grueling routine of the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, known as the Frogmen. He faces the heavy burden of duty and the politics of retreat that hang over Kinmen as the frontline against the mainland.

Chang Yun-shan, a scarred and disciplined sergeant major, becomes a mentor to Lo and secures his transfer into Unit 831. The unit’s secrets begin to blur the line between service and moral compromise as Lo adjusts to the new environment.

In the damp tunnels, Chung Hua-hsing endures relentless bullying while plotting a desperate bid to escape with Sasa, the prostitute he cares for. Their attempt to swim toward the mainland underscores both the claustrophobic grip of the base and the dream of freedom.

Chang grows lonely and becomes attached to Jiao, a coquettish figure who embodies the ambiguities of life inside the brothel. Lo offers quiet comfort, writes letters to Chang’s mother, and guards his own virginity for the loved one back home.

Lo befriends Nini, a reserved Shanghainese woman who teaches him to play the guitar. Her backstory unfolds gradually: she has a son and serves in Unit 831 to work off a sentence after killing her husband, a history that casts her as a wary survivor.

Nini and Lo grow closer and share a tender kiss one night in the wheat fields after curfew, a moment of intimacy amid deprivation. The kiss deepens their bond and adds weight to the choices they must face.

Over the years, Chang plans to marry Jiao, leave the service, and open a dumpling restaurant in Taiwan, aiming for a life beyond the trenches. Jiao's motives are self-servicing, using relationships to secure her own release from the brothel.

Lo reveals the secret he has learned about Jiao's schemes to Chang, triggering a confrontation that ends with Chang strangling Jiao. The act drives Lo into guilt and fractures the unit's fragile balance.

The confrontation leads to Lo's arrest and the unraveling of his life within Unit 831. He confronts the consequences as the system tightens around him.

By 1971, Nini receives a general amnesty and is nearly transferred back to Taiwan. On their last night together, she leans toward intimacy, but Lo refuses, explaining that he wants to save his virginity for the woman he will marry.

After completing his service, Unit 831 directs Lo to marry and forget the brothel, underscoring the film’s central tension between personal yearning and duty. Lo faces an uncertain future dictated by the system and memory.

A pre-credits sequence cuts to black-and-white images of an alternate reality, offering a stark counterpoint to the main narrative. The closing vignette hints at what might have been, preserving memory, choice, and the life lived under war’s shadow.