Regie: Wang Xiaoshuai
Darsteller: Li Bin, Yao Anlian, Gao Yuanyuan
Originaltitel: Qing hong
Herstellungsland: China
Handlung:
Wang XiaoShuai was a great Asian discovery for me when he won multiple awards in Berlin with his highly acclaimed ?Beijing Bicycle?. But I?m glad to say that ?Shanghai Dreams? surpasses that film in almost every area.
The film tells a complex story that actually has a quite significant part in Chinese history. Qing Hong is a young girl who lives in Guizhou with her family. Encouraged by the government, Qing Hong?s family move to this poor part of their country with high hopes. Unfortunately, they are used by the government, just to improve local industry in this poor area and their dreams will never come true in such a place. So her parents decide that they should move to Shanghai for a better future, even though it means that they will have to take a great risk against the strict law which forbades them from leaving Guizhou. Even though she understands the reason behind her parents? desicion, it is not easy for Qing Hong to leave the place where she spent all her childhood, and more importantly, where she experienced love.
Before I start praising this masterpiece, I should note that the film has a significantly slow pace. But it?s one of the advantages of the film, rather than a weakness. It is a film about people who got stuck between their dreams and their past. It is a very difficult desicion to make, beacuse they know that they don?t have a future in Guizghou. But on the other hand, they will leave so many precious things behind.
This state is not only abstract. Because they live in a very limited society that has some strict rules about almost anything that young people can dream of and Qing Hong naturally wants somethings that she cannot reach. When the characters are in such state of mind, it makes better sense that they find their province rather small and feel stuck there despite the great forest and gorgeous scenery they have. At this point, we also should remember that the government of that particular time period was very unforgiving, so it also is hard for them to leave Guizhou and not to think of that place as a prison.
Visually, the film works perfectly for the theme I tried to explain above. Cinematography is much more than nice photographs, because the director makes you feel what the story is about with his careful frames. We often see the characters behind closed doors, locked windows. They live in small houses, spent their time in tight rooms. There are scenes in which we see the actors standing on the peak of a hill, they can see huge plains in front of them as they were close, but also too far away to reach. Fog is permanent and cloudy skies, cold colours have a great affect.
Yuan Yuan Gao gives a phenomenal performance as the adorable Qing Hong. She has the ability of telling so many emotions without saying many words. She had worked with Wang XiaoShuai in ?Beijing Bicycle? before.
Shanghai Dreams is a wonderful film that tells a sad but important story with spectacular cinematogaphy and wonderful performances. A rare gem that has many layers beneath its poetic beauty.