Identity and Performance: Disguise and role-play are central metaphors. Characters adopt masks—Westernized manners, staged femininity, or hypocritical patriotism—to navigate a society fractured by occupation. Wang’s transformation is less an issue of deceit than of self-fashioning under pressure: the role she plays becomes indistinguishable from who she is. The film raises unsettling questions about authenticity when survival demands continual performance.