Scare Out, directed by Zhang Yimou, who is best known internationally for films such as Raise the Red Lantern and House of Flying Daggers, was produced under the direct supervision of the Ministry of State Security, which said the film was based on real-life cases.
The film features a tense game of cat and mouse as counter-espionage agents track down a researcher who leaked information about a stealth fighter to foreign spies, but then discover that there is a mole within their own ranks.
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The film has so far taken in 483 million yuan (US$70 million) in the first three days of the Year of the Horse, putting it second behind the motor-racing comedy Pegasus 3, which took in 1.5 billion yuan, according to Maoyan, a Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform.
The film, largely shot in Shenzhen, a tech hub on the border with Hong Kong, was the first movie directly supervised by the ministry, which said the script was based on real cases.
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In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV, Zhang said national security officers had “shared many behind-the-scenes stories”, but turning them into a 100-minute film “required a high degree of precision and tight pacing”.
