Zhèbù diànyǐng jiǎngshù le yī míng diébào rényuán de gùshi.
This film tells the story of an intelligence agent.
Tips
usage
谍 rarely stands alone in modern Chinese. It appears in compounds: 间谍 (spy), 谍报 (intelligence / espionage), 谍战 (spy warfare / espionage thriller as a genre). The standalone form is classical/literary.
Side-speech radical on the left — compressed two-stroke form of 言. Indexes 谍 in the speaking family with 说 to say, 话 word, 议 to discuss, 谋 to plot. 谍 names a spy — someone who gathers secret words and reports — so the speech radical names the medium the spy works in.
Right side 枼 supplies the sound — yè shifted to dié through Old-Chinese sound change. Same phonetic in 蝶 butterfly, 牒 official document, 碟 small dish. 枼 itself pictured a leaf on a tree; with 讠 above, 谍 originally evoked thin written tablets (like leaves) carrying secret reports back to the prince.
