Port Arthur (1936)

1904, during the Russo-Japanese War. The vast army of Russia’s commander-in-chief in the Far East, General Kuropatkin, has been defeated, and Admiral Makarov’s fleet destroyed. Port Arthur, the harbor city on the Chinese coast, is under siege by the Japanese. Among the remaining Russian defenders is Officer Boris Ranewsky, commander of a torpedo boat, who holds out steadfastly with his men. He is tasked with holding the fortress for as long as possible. His private life is also in an extremely difficult situation: his wife, Youki, is Japanese, and his brother-in-law Ivamoura is a fanatical Japanese nationalist and officer who had schemed from the outset against his sister’s marriage to the Russian, which took place shortly before hostilities broke out. Ivamoura, meanwhile, tries to enter the Russian fortress disguised as a Chinese coolie, with Youki’s help. He appeals to her patriotic duty as a Japanese woman when he asks her to assist in his espionage. She is to find out when the pitiful remnant of the once-proud Russian fleet will try to break out of Port Arthur harbor. Out of loyalty to her husband, she refuses to comply with Ivamoura’s demand and curtly rebuffs him. When Boris returns after six weeks of frontline service, she urgently asks him to tell her whether the Russians intend to attempt a breakout. Boris knows nothing about it, but is all the more surprised when, shortly afterward, he learns from General Staff officer Captain Novitzki that a breakout is indeed being planned. Who could have told Youki about it? Soon afterward, Boris receives a delicate and dangerous assignment from Captain Wossidlow, head of Russian counterintelligence. They have intercepted a Japanese carrier pigeon and learned as a result that a Japanese spy ring is operating in Port Arthur. Ranewsky is therefore to search the city with his men for enemy spies. Before that, however, Wossidlow invites himself to tea at Ranewsky’s, to get to know Boris’s Japanese wife better and sound her out. Boris has a bad feeling about it and presses Youki to tell him where she got the information about the planned fleet breakout. At last she confesses the truth and names her brother, but also insists unequivocally that she is not collaborating with him or with the Japanese. The Chinese owner of the teahouse where Youki met her brother is willing, for a suitable payment, to cooperate with the Russians. They hope to lure Ivamoura or other Japanese agents back there and arrest them all at once. While Boris finalizes the deal at the teahouse, Wossidlow puts Youki under such pressure during their chat that she confesses to a betrayal of the Russians she never committed. To spare Boris Ranewsky the disgrace of having married a Japanese spy, Wossidlow even tries to induce her to kill herself. Boris arrives at the last moment and makes it clear to Wossidlow that his suspicions are misguided. As Youki leaves the room, swearing that she has nothing more to do with her brother, she comes face to face with a figure in the darkness of the next room: it is Ivamoura. He has hidden there while fleeing the Russians, whose raid has thrown the entire city into turmoil, and now asks his sister for help. She refuses and, when he will not leave, tells him to wait for the time being in her husband’s study. There Ivamoura seizes his opportunity and copies important military documents concerning the fortress. When Youki tries to intervene, her brother threatens to shoot her husband on the spot if she makes even a sound. Right next door, Wossidlow and Boris have gathered with the teahouse owner for a secret meeting about the Japanese spies who are soon due to assemble for a rendezvous. Ivamoura overhears everything and, at the last moment, manages to warn his men about the Russian trap. The Russian plans are passed on to the Japanese besiegers, and Ivamoura settles accounts with the treacherous teahouse owner, who has been playing both sides. At the man’s corpse, Boris Ranewsky arrests his brother-in-law. Ivamoura’s plea for an honorable suicide, to spare Youki the disgrace of betrayal, makes Boris’s blood run cold. Has his wife lied, then, and collaborated with the Japanese after all? He is stunned. Although he must realize that doing so could hand his wife over to Russian justice, Boris obeys his soldier’s oath and turns Ivamoura over to Russian counterintelligence. The plans of Fort No. 2 copied by Ivamoura have enabled the Japanese artillery fire gradually to wear down the fortress defenders. The defeat of the remaining Russian garrison seems only a matter of hours away. Boris is ordered to take his torpedo boat, with the Russian regimental standards aboard, and break through the Japanese blockade ring in order at least to save Russian honor. Meanwhile, Captain Wossidlow insists on subjecting Youki and her brother to another round of harsh interrogations. Ivamoura has only one wish left: to take off his shabby disguise and face execution by firing squad honorably in his Japanese officer’s uniform. Youki, meanwhile, is to be court-martialed; her betrayal seems proven. Boris, too, has now lost faith in his wife’s honesty. With the remaining Russians on the verge of surrender, the executions are halted and Youki is released from custody. She then runs into the city to search for her husband in Port Arthur and explain everything to him. Aboard the torpedo boat, the two are reconciled. Boris fails in his attempt to break through the Japanese ring. But at least the regimental standards must not fall into Japanese hands, so Captain Ranewsky orders all the watertight compartments opened and the ship scuttled. As they face death, the Russian and his Japanese wife embrace—at the very place where they were once married: in the officers’ mess.