The film follows the life & story story of QiYao (Sammi) in ShangHai from 1940s till 1980s. Sammi able to play her part quite well as a naive innocent teen, lover, mother, and mature woman. But her Mandarin is horrible. It makes you wanna laugh especially when she is angry. This is what I find most distracting. Mostly she is portrayed with blank look. Maybe it is the gloomy life of the character QiYao, always tried to find a better man. The story is a bit slow. It can become boring in times. Nevertheless this is a classic. It takes the audience experiencing life in Shang Hai from its heyday to the rise of Communist and its gloomy communist days.