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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 617

City Scenes

193599 minChina

Video edition: YouTube
Original language: Chinese
This copy runs: 99:08
Subtitles: Subtitles embedded in the picture

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Synopsis

A peep-show view of Shanghai opens onto a family caught between modest means and glittering aspirations. Courtship becomes tangled with the promise of wealth, while bills and disappointment puncture the dream. Music, caricature and visual jokes turn the city’s appetite for money into a comic spectacle.

Cast

Zhang Xinzhu

Tang Na

Zhou Boxun

Wu Yin

DirectorsYuan Muzhi

Behind the scenes

Yuan Muzhi’s first film as director experiments with music, animation and sound comedy. A peep-show framing device and the Wan brothers’ animation make the mechanics of spectacle part of the story itself.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Virtual Shanghai · CNRS Chinese Film Classics Wikimedia Commons · copyright reference China · Copyright Law, Article 23 US Copyright Office · foreign works Internet Archive · film copy

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

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Availability checked on September 11, 2026.

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