Just finished watching Shanghai Dreams and can only agree with the previous comments, beautifully shot and perfectly paced, a real gem of familial and social conflict with a scene that seems totally out of place and was unnecessary.

Mature writing and direction especially as regards the father/daughter conflict and obviously filled with personal recollections of youth, you just have to love the "underground dance" sequence in particular.

Regarding the rape, the scene was absolutely out of place, I felt as though the director was looking for some dramatic impetus to push the family to take the final leap and head back to Shanghai, but in all honesty, it just didn't need it.

I'd still give it a hearty recommendation despite my one misgiving, quality filmmaking that far outshines the recent output of certain "Fifth generation" Chinese directors.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated 15. 

R2 dvd released by Artificial Eye, very good sound and picture quality.

Limited extras, a short "making of", trailer and director's filmography.

Now the "making of" though short, is very interesting, it also raised a query. The subs were quite different to those of the dvd and to be honest, they seemed more natural, I would guess they were from a region 3 release. I'm just wondering if there's any major difference brought about by the differing interpretations in the subs, if so I'd probably invest in the R3 dvd as well.