Wang Xiaoshuai's latest film is one that can easily be admired, but the director intentionally keeps the audience at arm's length, preventing any deep emotional involvement with the characters.
Many Chinese families obeyed the urging of the government to leave Shanghai and take up factory jobs far inland during the 1960s. With the passage of years, Lao Wu grows increasingly unhappy in the bleak rural surroundings and longs for a return home. His daughter Qinghong is equally unhappy with his strict parentage and tries to respond to the romantic entreaties of a local boy, only to be hemmed in by her father.
Winner of a Jury Prize at Cannes earlier this year, SHANGHAI DREAMS includes plenty of period cultural details. The grey landscapes are oppressively unappealing, hammering home the point that Lao Wu's dream of returning to his seaside hometown is well-motivated. Wang's insistence on the camera maintaining a physical distance from the actors results in several scenes that are startling for their subtlety, yet works against the possibility of truly connecting with the material. The result is a beautifully drawn, if drab, piece of art that one admires from a distance.
Of the director's previous seven films, I've only seen two. BEIJING BICYCLE (Shiqisuide Danche) won much praise; I found it to be well-made but irritating because of the plot manipulations. DRIFTERS (Er Di), his most recent previous work, was much more successful, an intimate family story about a father who attempts to reconnect with the son he has never known. SHANGHAI DREAMS falls somewhere between the two for me; it feels more authentic and heartfelt than BEIJING BICYCLE, but both the father and daughter come across as more stereotypical than the troubled father in DRIFTERS.
As noted at Twitch in May, Artificial Eye picked this up for distribution in the UK. Sales agent Fortissimo has a little more information here.