
In late 1930s, Shanghai was an international city - only for the upper-class came from Western big powers - a place to indulge themselves with extravagant nightlife or to target an acquisition of larger portion of then chaotic China.
There were, in contrast, some disillusioned diplomats like Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) or reduced aristocratic families such as Sofia’s family.

当時、ジャクソンは爆発事故で最愛の妻と娘を亡くし、自身も視力を失っていたのだ。ジャクソンの夢を叶えるには、バーに花を添えることのできる美しいマダム… ソフィアの存在こそが求められていた…
Sofia (Natasha Richardson), White Russian countess, has escaped from the Bolshevik Revolution, now working as a taxi-dancer for her dead husband relatives. Meanwhile, Jackson, once a US diplomat, now only has a dream to own a perfect bar where people chat and dance without worrying about tomorrow’s real politics, after losing not only his sight but his wife and daughter at bombings.

Shanghai, now, is changing its shape once again as a cosmopolitan city welcoming massive foreign investment and fearlessly speeding its growth rate.
ストーリーは、日本の侵略という形で終盤を迎えるが、21世紀の今、状況はいささか異なっている。中国は、もはやどこの国からも軍事侵略を受けないであろう大国に成長したが、外界を知った国民による知的謀反こそが、中央政府の一番の恐怖となっているのかもしれない。
This film ends with Japanese invasion while the situation in the 21-century seems quite different. China won’t be invaded in current global society but the real threat for the government is an internal factor; its people who are having critical minds.
By Mari
Film review written at Jomec, March 2006. Japanese review added on 5 November 2006.
Photos (C) Merchant Ivory Productions/WISEPOLICY+TOHO-TOWA, and Sony Pictures