The story takes place in a small remote village named Guajiatai (or Rack Armor Terrace) near Shanhaiguan, Hebei at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan.

[5] In a small village named Rack-Armor Terrace in Hebei, at the foot of the Great Wall of China, a local peasant called Ma Dasan is caught by surprise when a man bursts into his home one night and deposits two men in gunnysacks, instructing him at gunpoint to keep them captive but alive for the next few days and interrogate them.

Not daring to commit murder, Ma instead hides the prisoners in a watchtower along the Great Wall, where he visits them regularly to bring them food and water.

The commander of the encampment, Captain Inokichi Sakatsuka, gives Hanaya a merciless beating but feels honor-bound to fulfill the agreement between the latter and the village.

Meanwhile, Hanaya is about to commit harakiri before being stopped by Captain Sakatsuka and informed that Japan has recently surrendered, and the war is over.

After the Chinese National Revolutionary Army takes back the area, Dong is publicly executed for collaborating with the enemy.

Ma, bent on revenge, disguises himself as a cigarette vendor and loiters outside the Japanese encampment, now converted into a POW camp.

When two Japanese soldiers come out to buy cigarettes, Ma hacks them with an axe and breaks into the camp, killing more POWs.

Captain Sakatsuka hands a katana to Hanaya, who takes careful aim before delivering the fatal strike.

The timeline of the film matches up accurately with history; the execution of Ma Dasan, portrayed by Jiang Wen, lines up with the announcement of the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, by the Japanese Emperor Hirohito.

The film's portrayal and depictions of both the Chinese and the Japanese resulted in its fair share of controversies, with many from either side unhappy with how their country was presented.

Because Jiang Wen and You Fengwei had different views about national character, this film set aside the theme of military-civilian resistance in the original work.

[1] Later, however, a general manager from the same company told a reporter that the initial budget was US$2 million, but the final expenditure exceeded this number by over 30 percent.

Jiang spent two weeks discussing the issue with them, and showed them documentaries about the war, including some made by Japanese filmmakers.

This was a working version that was later cut to 139 minutes with director Jiang Wen's full participation in order to enhance the film's commercial prospects and to tighten the storyline, which he did not have time to do before the Cannes premier.

The Film Bureau reportedly sent two officials to Cannes to try to dissuade the festival from screening Devils on the Doorstep and demanded that Jiang hand over the negative (which was brought to Australia for post-production).

There were also reports from Asian film circles that the authorities planned to punish Jiang by forbidding him to work in China for seven years.

It was not known publicly if the seven-year ban was eventually imposed, but Jiang did not produce any directorial work between Devils on the Doorstep and the 2007 production The Sun Also Rises.

A report confirmed that the authorities complained that "Chinese civilians [in the movie] don't hate the Japanese [prisoner]", but instead are "as close as brothers" with the latter.

Devils on the Doorstep was commercially released in Japan on 27 April 2002, further delaying a possible lift of ban on the film in China.

The conservative Yomiuri Shimbun also complimented Jiang, Kagawa Teruyuki and Kenya Sawada, saying their acting was "colorful" and "believable".

Inevitably, however, some reviewers voiced displeasure after viewing the film, saying that it "further estranges the Sino-Japanese friendship that was seriously damaged in the past war".

The news sparked a new round of debate in China, where criticism of famous actress Zhao Wei for appearing on the cover of Bazaar in a dress with a Japanese military flag design had newly subsided.

[10] According to Box Office Mojo, Devils on the Doorstep opened in a single cinema in the United States on 18 December 2002.

After watching the film, Minghella gave it positive remarks, calling it "candid, calm, yet filled with danger".

A DVD featuring subtitles in English and an introduction by American director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Ocean's Eleven) was released on 19 April 2005 in the United States by Home Vision Entertainment.