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 "title": "Shanghai Dreams (青红)",
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 "excerpt": "Shanghai Dreams (青红, aka 我十九) is Wang Xiaoshuai's 2005 semi-autobiographical Chinese drama about a Shanghai family relocated to Guiyang under the Third Front policy; it won the 2005 Cannes Jury Prize and was his first film approved for Chinese theatrical release.",
 "snippet": "Shanghai Dreams (青红, aka 我十九) is Wang Xiaoshuai's 2005 semi-autobiographical Chinese drama about a Shanghai family relocated to Guiyang under the Third Front policy; it won the 2005 Cannes Jury Prize and was his first film approved for Chinese theatrical release.",
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 "markdown": "# Shanghai Dreams (青红)\n\n**Shanghai Dreams** (青红, also known by the working title 我十九, \"I Am Nineteen\") is a 2005 Chinese drama film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai, set in the early 1980s in Guiyang, Guizhou province, where a Shanghai family relocated under China's Third Front policy struggles over whether to return to Shanghai<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/shanghai-dreams/)</sup>. It competed at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/shanghai-dreams/)</sup>.\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / year | Wang Xiaoshuai, China, 2005<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)</sup> |\n| Award | Jury Prize, 2005 Cannes Film Festival (in competition)<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/shanghai-dreams/)</sup> |\n| Setting | Early 1980s, Guiyang, Guizhou; a family moved from Shanghai in the 1960s under the Third Front relocation policy<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.screendaily.com/shanghai-dreams/4023203.article)</sup> |\n| Principal cast | Gao Yuanyuan (Wu Qinghong), Li Bin (Fan Honggen), Yan Anlian (Wu Zemin), Tang Yang, Wang Xueyang, Qin Hao<sup>[4](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2005/archive-4/shanghai-dreams/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://fest.afi.com/2005/asian-new-classics-2005/shanghai-dreams-qinghong/)</sup> |\n| Key crew | Screenplay Lao Ni and Wang Xiaoshuai; cinematography Wu Di; editing Yang Hongyu; producer Pi Li<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/shanghai-dreams/)</sup> |\n| Runtime | About 120 minutes (festivals list 120, 121, or 123 minutes)<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2005/archive-4/shanghai-dreams/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://ifi.ie/film/shanghai-dreams/)</sup> |\n| Chinese release | Passed censorship April 1, 2005; released in mainland China June 3, 2005<sup>[7](https://ent.sina.com.cn/x/2005-04-05/0923694640.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-05-23/09465962018s.shtml)</sup> |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film opens in the early 1980s in Guiyang, where [bell-bottoms](https://www.edgepedia.org/bell-bottoms) and permed hair among high school students signal the first changes after the [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution) era<sup>[5](https://fest.afi.com/2005/asian-new-classics-2005/shanghai-dreams-qinghong/)</sup>. In the 1960s, countless urban Chinese workers heeded the government's call to leave the cities and follow factories inland, part of the \"Third Line of Defence\" policy that dispersed essential industry in the face of a threatened Soviet invasion<sup>[5](https://fest.afi.com/2005/asian-new-classics-2005/shanghai-dreams-qinghong/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/10/drama)</sup>.\n\nThe heroine, nineteen-year-old Wu Qinghong, has grown up in Guizhou with her parents and her brother; that is where her friends are and where she first experiences love<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/shanghai-dreams/)</sup>. Her father, Wu Zemin, after more than a decade in the province still sees himself as a temporary resident and navigates the factory's bureaucratic channels to gain a transfer back to Shanghai, hoping to secure a brighter future for his children<sup>[5](https://fest.afi.com/2005/asian-new-classics-2005/shanghai-dreams-qinghong/)</sup>. He keeps Qinghong on a very tight rein for fear she will become attached to life in the remote, mountainous province<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)</sup>.\n\nQinghong receives a pair of red high-heeled shoes from a local factory worker, Fan Honggen, with whom she is enamored; to her father the shoes are a sign that his daughter is laying down roots in a town he intends to leave<sup>[5](https://fest.afi.com/2005/asian-new-classics-2005/shanghai-dreams-qinghong/)</sup>. She senses that something is not quite right with Honggen's fanatical courtship, and a great drama is revealed only step by step<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)</sup>. The film ends with the crack of a firing squad executing prisoners; the boy who loved Qinghong is shot for rape, and three gunshots echo across the landscape<sup>[3](https://www.screendaily.com/shanghai-dreams/4023203.article)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[10](https://news.sina.cn/sa/2005-05-20/detail-ikkntiam3524332.d.html?vt=4)</sup>.\n\n## Background and autobiographical basis\n\nWang Xiaoshuai draws on his own reminiscences. His family was relocated from Shanghai to the poor, mountainous province of Guizhou as part of the authorities' decision to install fortified industrial cities near the border with the Soviet Union<sup>[3](https://www.screendaily.com/shanghai-dreams/4023203.article)</sup>. Wang was born in Shanghai and moved with his parents, who joined the Third Front construction, to Guiyang at two months old, growing up there until age 13<sup>[10](https://news.sina.cn/sa/2005-05-20/detail-ikkntiam3524332.d.html?vt=4)</sup>. He has called the film his autobiographical movie, about history he witnessed<sup>[11](https://paper.people.com.cn/hqrw/html/2011-11/26/content_966663.htm?div=-1)</sup>.\n\nThe script existed from the 1990s. An early version, titled 《我19》 (\"I Am 19\"), told two generations' stories, including Qinghong's daughter's; Wang ultimately cut the narrative so that Shanghai remains only a dream<sup>[10](https://news.sina.cn/sa/2005-05-20/detail-ikkntiam3524332.d.html?vt=4)</sup>. In interviews he explained that the film's basis was two things he heard after leaving Guiyang: several families from his father's factory who fled overnight back to Shanghai in the early 1980s, and stories resembling Qinghong's told by former classmates<sup>[12](https://www.changhai.org/bbs/load_article.php?aid=1150431413&fid=12)</sup>.\n\n## Production and censorship\n\nThe film was shot on film in 2004 and completed in 2005<sup>[13](https://www.sohu.com/a/228102260_287936)</sup>. Production was financially precarious: the first investor withdrew mid-shoot, the crew left Guiyang in debt, and DVD rights were sold early; after the Cannes award, overseas box office of nearly 1.2 million yuan recouped the domestic cost of the 10-million-yuan production<sup>[14](https://www.ifeng.com/fcd/200804/0411_3040_487248_1.shtml)</sup>.\n\nPassing censorship was itself a milestone. On April 1, 2005, China's film censorship board issued its approval decision, making Shanghai Dreams the first film of Wang's 12-year career to receive theatrical release in China and his first to enter an international festival through the normal procedure of obtaining approval first<sup>[7](https://ent.sina.com.cn/x/2005-04-05/0923694640.html)</sup>. The first submission on March 24 was rejected with four revision notes about overly stimulating images and sounds; changes included modifying gunshot sounds and a brief nudity shot, and the second submission passed in nine days<sup>[7](https://ent.sina.com.cn/x/2005-04-05/0923694640.html)</sup>.\n\n## Release and reception\n\nAfter the Cannes award, the mainland release was moved up from August to June 3, 2005<sup>[8](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-05-23/09465962018s.shtml)</sup>. Commercially the film fared poorly at home: per Maoyan data its cumulative box office was only 110,000 yuan<sup>[15](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3236114?from=sohu)</sup>.\n\nCritics responded to its portrait of the displaced Shanghai community. Philip French in The Guardian described it as a distinctly Chekhovian film in which exiled factory workers pine for Shanghai as their 19th-century Russian equivalents longed for Moscow, and noted the recurring image of Qinghong sitting silently on her bed while her father storms up and down the corridor outside<sup>[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/10/drama)</sup>. Peter Bradshaw wrote that the movie upends the usual clichés about the younger generation yearning for the big city and has \"a granite severity and sombre force\"<sup>[4](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2005/archive-4/shanghai-dreams/)</sup>. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 60% Tomatometer from 5 reviews and a 62% audience score from more than 500 ratings<sup>[16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shanghai-dreams-qinghong)</sup>.\n\n## Place in Wang Xiaoshuai's work\n\nShanghai Dreams is the first part of what became Wang's Third Front trilogy, followed by *11 Flowers* (我11, 2012) and *Intruder* (闯入者, 2014), films revisiting life in Third Front factory towns<sup>[17](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002408109)</sup>. Wang has said the chronological order of his own growth story runs from *11 Flowers* to *Shanghai Dreams* to *Intruder*, but the *Shanghai Dreams* script had existed since the 1990s, so it was made first<sup>[18](https://cinephilia.net/76592/)</sup>. The film also marked his move from underground to officially released filmmaking after the 2003 policy shift that allowed formerly banned independent directors to produce through their own companies<sup>[18](https://cinephilia.net/76592/)</sup>.\n\n## References\n\n1. [Shanghai Dreams, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2006/films/shanghai-dreams)\n2. [SHANGHAI DREAMS, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/shanghai-dreams/)\n3. [Shanghai Dreams, Screen Daily (Dan Fainaru, 2005)](https://www.screendaily.com/shanghai-dreams/4023203.article)\n4. [Shanghai Dreams, New Zealand International Film Festival 2005](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2005/archive-4/shanghai-dreams/)\n5. [SHANGHAI DREAMS (QINGHONG), AFI FEST 2005](https://fest.afi.com/2005/asian-new-classics-2005/shanghai-dreams-qinghong/)\n6. [SHANGHAI DREAMS, Irish Film Institute](https://ifi.ie/film/shanghai-dreams/)\n7. [12年！王小帅方获\"出生证\", Sina Entertainment / Southern Metropolis Daily (2005)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/x/2005-04-05/0923694640.html)\n8. [戛纳落幕《青红》夺奖, Sina News (2005)](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-05-23/09465962018s.shtml)\n9. [Shanghai dreams, The Guardian (Philip French, 2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/10/drama)\n10. [《青红》：回到生命的最初, Xinmin Weekly via Sina (2005)](https://news.sina.cn/sa/2005-05-20/detail-ikkntiam3524332.d.html?vt=4)\n11. [环球人物 interview with Wang Xiaoshuai (2011)](https://paper.people.com.cn/hqrw/html/2011-11/26/content_966663.htm?div=-1)\n12. [王小帅访谈 (李韧, 世纪中国)](https://www.changhai.org/bbs/load_article.php?aid=1150431413&fid=12)\n13. [\"咖啡别加糖！\" 王小帅谈《青红》, Sohu (2018)](https://www.sohu.com/a/228102260_287936)\n14. [王小帅：自我雕刻的时光, Phoenix (2008)](https://www.ifeng.com/fcd/200804/0411_3040_487248_1.shtml)\n15. [第六代导演开始掘金正当时, The Paper (2018)](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3236114?from=sohu)\n16. [Shanghai Dreams, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shanghai-dreams-qinghong)\n17. [电影声音的文化蕴含与记忆延伸：以王小帅\"三线三部曲\"为例, 中国文化研究 (2018)](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002408109)\n18. [王小帅访谈：撇去一切技术浮末后的历史记忆, Cinephilia (2019)](https://cinephilia.net/76592/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2000 to 2009*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "speakable": "Shanghai Dreams is Wang Xiaoshuai's 2005 semi-autobiographical Chinese drama about a Shanghai family relocated to Guiyang under the Third Front policy; it won the 2005 Cannes Jury Prize and was his first film approved for Chinese theatrical release."
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