Crows and Sparrows is a 1949 Chinese film made by the left-leaning Kunlun Studios on the eve of the Communist victory, directed by Zheng Junli and scripted by Chen Baichen. Notable for its extremely critical view of corrupt Nationalist bureaucrats, the film was made as Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing-based government was on the verge of collapse, and was not actually finished and released until after the Chinese Civil War had ended.

Plot

In the winter of 1948, the Kuomintang of China (KMT) is losing in the Huai Hai Campaign with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Civil War. Kuomintang government officials started to persecute the people more severely to upkeep their luxurious lifestyles. At a Shanghai shikumen house, Mr. Hou, a former Japanese collaborator, now a Section chief at the Kuomintang Ministry of Defense, is planning to sell the house which he seized from the owner Kong Yuwen and then fly to Taiwan. He appoints his mistress, Yu Xiaoying or so-called Mrs. Hou, to give an ultimatum to the rest of the tenants to move out.