Fang Xiuying (played by Li Lan) is a female worker in a textile workshop, she and her boyfriend Zeng Qiang (played by Mao Yongming) have been in love for many years, and they plan to get married after waiting for their work unit to assign them a house. Fang Xiuying is a very kind and helpful girl, but no good deed goes unpunished, and her good-hearted nature is challenged at every turn by bad luck and the bad intentions of others.

Said to be the first science-fiction film produced in China (and perhaps having its North American theatrical premiere in Future Imperfect?), Death Ray on Coral Island spares no bile, camp, or latent envy in portraying America as the cunning archenemy that will stop at nothing—industrial espionage, assassinations, even ballroom dancing—to steal China’s futuristic weaponry. The film occupies a pivotal moment in China’s modern history, representing a legacy of the Great Cultural Revolution and a harbinger of the nation’s ascension on the global economic stage. Courtesy of the China Film Archive and Shanghai Film Group.

In 1930's Shanghai, Wu Sunpu, chief executive of the Shanghai Yuhua Silk Company, faces many struggles: with plant workers, with strikers, others in his industry, and most of all with bourgeois comprador Zhao Botao. Capitalists and other figures in Shanghai's industrial and commercial community come and go. The strategy finally comes down between Wu and Zhao. Zhao plans to take over Wu Sunpu's plant with support from Americans. Wu faces a choice of surrender to Zhao or bankruptcy. He considers suicide, but decides to go on vacation with his wife on Mount Lushan. When they leave Shanghai at midnight, Wu paces the deck of the ship, reviewing his life and fate.

A young man leading an aimless life finds that he must change his outlook to life when he falls in love with a hard working letter carrier. As he tries to impress her by collecting and learning about postage stamps, he acquires a rich, diverse knowledge of China's history and accomplishments and even wins the top award in a national quiz competition among Chinese factories.

Set in the period just after ten years of chaos, several love stories associated with the tourists on a bus indicate more meanings of love.

During the Cultural Revolution a powerless newspaper writer struggles with his conscience at the pervasive dishonesty and immorality from the top on down. The ethical and professional conflicts eventually threaten both his work and family relationships,

Fifty years after partners in a prestigious Shanghai restaurant split, others try to restore it to its glory.