Starring Zhang Huimin and Wu Suxin, it depicts the machinations of three men who seek to steal two large pearls from a former colleague.

They are unable to agree how to divide these spoils, and Chang Yung – the eldest – thus gives one to his live-in girlfriend Yu Zhiyin and one to his sister Aye Chien for safekeeping.

[4] Editing was done by George Loh,[5] while cinematography was handled by Tong Kim Ding (or Tang Jianting; Jyutping: Tong1 Gim3 Ting4; pinyin: Tāng Jiàntíng);[6] he also acted in the film.

[8] Although the film is set in a rural fishing village, various markers of modernity are presented, including European-style riding breeches and concrete structures.

[9] The style and themes of the film drew inspiration from Hollywood serials starring Pearl White, which similarly offered women reaching beyond the domestic to achieve mastery.

[10] In her reading of the film, the scholar Zhang Zhen describes Lustrous Pearls as simultaneously providing a message of empowerment in the construction of the New Woman while warning against the inherent dangers, noting the betrayal of Yang's daughter as well as her attempt at suicide.

[11] She describes the film as "emphatically about the mobile, indestructible heroine bodies", whose physical differences with their male peers are obscured through long shots of movement and fighting.