AllMovie

The romantic, slightly erotic, and emotional rise to prominence of a lowly Shanghai ballroom dancer is the focus of this melodrama by Taiwanese director Lin Chen-ping. Madam Chin is about to retire from a successful career that began in the Shanghai demimonde of ballroom dancers at the time of the Communist Chinese takeover of mainland China, and she reminisces on her past. Long ago, she fell in love with a young student, but her dreams of wedded bliss were not to be -- she became pregnant, and the family of the man she loved pressured her into having an abortion. That tragedy, along with the communist rise to power, create changes that eventually bring her to Taiwan, where she continues in the world of ballroom dancing and garners both fame and fortune -- with another lover waiting in the wings.