The Stand-in

Deng Sidi, a destitute rickshaw driver in Guangzhou, grapples with poverty while saving to pay for eye treatment for his girlfriend, Ah Chun. Desperation drives him to accept a covert assignment from Ou Shuyun, the defiant daughter of the Guangdong inspector-general and a patron of revolutionary Chen Shaobai. His task is to impersonate Li Chongguang, the son of businessman Li Yutang. He is never told that Chongguang has been killed. To keep Li Yutang from discovering the deception, Ou Shuyun engineers Sidi’s entry as Chongguang’s replacement. For a time, the scheme appears to hold. But when Shuyun’s father discovers his daughter’s liaison with Chen Shaobai, he attempts to bury the affair by forcing Chongguang and Shuyun to marry. This drama is an adaptation of the 2009 Hong Kong film Bodyguards and Assassins.