A person's life is destined to be shorter than that of a city. Having spent her whole life in Shanghai, Qiyao has her moments of prosperity and her fair share of loneliness. She finally fades and disappears but Shanghai remains a metropolitan city. Shanghai in the 1930s is glamorous and seductive.
Sammi Cheng Sau-Man
Wang Qiyao
Tony Leung Ka-fai
Mr. Cheng
Hu Jun
Officer Li Zhong De
Daniel Wu
Kang Ming Xun
Huang Jue
Kela
Su Yan
Lili Jiang
Wu Hai-Re
Lili's Cousin
Crystal Huang Yi
Weiwei
Yumiko Cheng Hei-Yi
Zhang Yong Hong
A person's life is destined to be shorter than that of a city. Having spent her whole life in Shanghai, Qiyao has her moments of prosperity and her fair share of loneliness. She finally fades and disappears but Shanghai remains a metropolitan city. Shanghai in the 1930s is glamorous and seductive.
A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.
Wang Tiemei, a single mother, loses her job and moves, befriending neighbor Xiaoye who appears cheerful but is depressed. Their bond grows as Tiemei navigates relationships with her ex-husband causing trouble.
Yu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.
The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.
Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.
A novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025.