Shanghai Dreams

Wang Xiaoshuai appears to be taking a different approach with this moving, almost classic film. The maker of innovative films such as The Days and Frozen here uses a more traditional form to tell his story about the Chinese countryside in the early 1980s. An era when the drabness of the Cultural Revolution was still greatly felt, but also in which the first signs of innovation were breaking through. The film has been described as semi-autobiographical, and this could explain the authenticity of mood and wealth of detail. It is the father of the schoolgirl Qinghong who – as the title indicates – dreams of Shanghai, but the film focuses on Qinghong. She is kept on a very tight rein by her father for fear that she will become attached to life in the remote, mountainous province of Guizhou. Her father has never learned to accept the forced repatriation of the family as part of the patriotic politics that forced large sections of the community to leave the cities. Qinghong has an admirer, but she’s not particularly happy with this at first. Not only does she fear her father’s wrath, but she also senses that something is not quite right with the fanatical courtship of the young worker Honggen. A great drama is looming, but the film maker, very effectively, only reveals this step by step. (GjZ)