At first glance, Shanghai Dreams is about the clash between generations. But knowing a little bit of the background may help potential audiences understand the underlying feelings its English title conveys.
In the 1960s, at the government's call, a large number of young people in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai migrated to the backward, inland areas in order to help promote a more balanced nationwide development, and kick-start local industry.
But the wish that someday they would return to their hometowns, for most, never ceased. This was especially the case for those who came from Shanghai, with its culture, which fostered an ambience of pride.
Believing that Shanghai was the best place in the country, every day in the remote inland area was a mental torment for them, the pain of which was much worse than nostalgia or the hardships lower living standards brought.
Free migration was of course not allowed, in an era when following the government's call was regarded a virtue. So the question of whether to settle or not in the hinterland never arose although the generation who migrated never really put down roots in the places to which they devoted their young and best years.
The economic reforms initiated in 1978 brought China to the brink of tumultuous change, one that swept the country and influenced people's lives fundamentally. Returning to their hometowns was no longer tantamount to high treason.
In Shanghai Dreams, the heroine, 19-year-old Qinghong, was born to a Shanghai family relocated to Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou Province in the southwest of the country.
While her father, determined that his children should not live through the privations he has and is desperate to return to Shanghai, Qinghong is content to stay in Guiyang, where she has grown up and made friends.
The strife continues and contrasting hopes and expectations increase. It erupts when the overbearing father finds out his daughter has fallen in love with a local man, Fan Honggen. Since the family will soon leave, the father believes the romance has no future and should be snuffed out early.
Qinghong is not the type to rebel for what she wants. She just silently obeys her father and acquiesces to his decision to take the family back to Shanghai.
The movie takes a savage turn, compounding the simmering tragedy when Fan rapes Qinghong. She is so traumatized by the attack, it mentally destabilizes her and Fan, meanwhile, is convicted and sentenced to death.
The family finally puts into practice their long-hatched clandestine plan to escape from Guiyang. The closing scene shows them driving away as the crack of two gunshots, which end Fan's life, ring out.
(China Daily June 20, 2005)
