Electric Shadows (Meng ying tong nian) (NR)

synopsis

Mao Dabing, an easygoing film buff, works delivering water bottles in Beijing. One day after he accidentally crashes his bike in an alley, he's suddenly brained with a brick by a disturbed young woman, Ling-ling. Arrested by the police, Ling-ling remains silent, but she gives Dabing the key to her apartment, asking him to feed the fish. Her place turns out to be a shrine to the movies, and especially to one star, legendary '30s singer-actress Zhou Xuan. As Dabing reads Ling-ling's private diary, the film flashes back to Ningxia province in the early '70s and the story of Ling-ling's mom, Jiang Xuehua.