The film consists of two police stories. Both of them happened within the last few days prior to the Hong Kong Handover in 1997. Part 1 - One Body Two Flags is about two middle age cops on the way to the airport, looking back on Hong Kong and at their own lives. It explores the bomb issues during the 1967 Hong Kong Riot, and the police uprising against the anti-corruption agency, ICAC, in 1978. Part 2 - The 5th depicts the turbulent love relationship between a young traffic police and his pro-democracy activist girlfriend amid the major political movement in 1989, and the 1997Hong Kong Handover. The title came from Beethoven's 5th Symphony which was used by the police to drown out the demonstrations on that fateful night.
