Logline
A historical comedy about the "currency war" in Shanghai in 1949, told through the legendary story of ordinary people in a lane.
No. 17 Yinyang Lane
Creative Statement
The approach is ordinary people in a great era. Yinyangli is a small lane, and the protagonist Mei Yinyuan is an ordinary man. It was an era when everything was being renewed, and also an era of old, fixed ways: everything was eager to take on a new look, while old people would not let go of the past. Mei Yinyuan faces just such a situation, with today unknown and tomorrow yet to come. In the "silver dollar war", shaped by the new era and new ideas, he finally finds his own pace in the new times and writes the legend of an ordinary man.
Synopsis
1949. Mei Yinyuan, a small-time radio host broadcasting from a garret room in a lane of Yinyangli, is set on speculating on the swings in the exchange rate as the renminbi is introduced, making a fortune and going to Hong Kong with his sweetheart Yao Tiao to start over. In the lane, A-Xiang, who runs a dance-hostess business, Old Zhou, who keeps a rice shop, Old Yao, an undercover Kuomintang agent, and Li Shiying of the military control commission's finance office are all listening to Mei Yinyuan's last broadcast. Unexpectedly, they all hear that Mei Yinyuan has "10,000 silver dollars". Each has their own designs on the money, and it causes quite a stir. Because he was put up to talking down the renminbi and affected market prices, Mei Yinyuan is mistaken for a "spy", but the shrewd military control commission clears his name and follows the trail to break up the operation behind it, the "Securities Building". No sooner is one trouble settled than another arises: enemy agents mistakenly airdrop a box of counterfeit renminbi into the lane, throwing Mei Yinyuan and his neighbours into chaos. To make up for the error, Old Yao tries to carry out a plan, but it goes awry, and Yao Tiao mistakes the information about his operation for a "love letter" and passes it to Mei Yinyuan. Old Yao launches an assault while the People's Liberation Army has been lured away; at the critical moment the people of the lane fight back and also save Mei Yinyuan, who has gone ahead. After all this, Mei Yinyuan decides to stay, and chooses to greet the new era and new society together with the other residents of No. 17 Yinyang Lane.
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Genre:
History, Comedy, Legend -
Director:
Jin Jian
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Executive Producer:
Zhu Feng -
Screenwriter:
Mao Jie
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Producer:
Zhu Xi