In the mid-1960s, the Chinese government - fearing a major conflict with their Russian neighbours - moved many of their important factories inland as a third line of defence. Many workers, answering their country's call, made the trip with their families to the barren countryside of Western China. Shanghai Dreams takes up the story in the early '80s, where Wu Zemin (Yan Anlian), frustrated with the few life prospects his family have in the region, wishes to return to his native city, Shanghai. His time is torn between making sure his daughter Qinghong (Gao Yuanyuan) is studying for college - an ambition he holds more dearly than she - and plotting a mini-revolt against the factory workers. Qinghong, however, just wants to be a girl with the little life she has, preferring instead to go to underground nightclubs with her best friend Xiao Zhen (Wang Xueyang) and her reckless attitude to the values of education threatens to drive her family apart. Despite the title, Shanghai Dreams is a bleak film. Director Wang Xiaoshuai has no interest in showing any beauty of the surrounding countryside, opting instead for bleached out colours, dismal, rain-drenched fields and shoddy back streets. On a number of occasions, Xiaoshuai moves his camera away from what would normally be pivotal scenes in most movies, hoping instead that the viewer will know from his well-developed characters what their reactions will be to certain situations. But it's not all doom and gloom - there are some moments of humour, the village's hoodlum being the target for most of the jokes.