Shanghai Baby

In rain-drenched Berlin, the passionate, life-loving young writer Coco seeks the closing chapter of her novel, which begins in the turbulent city of Shanghai at the outset of the 21st century. Coco leads an intense life in the lively subculture of the boomtown Shanghai. It revolves around endless nights spent in the Shanghai club and art scene, sex, literature and the writing of her first novel. Her life takes an unexpectedly complicated turn when she suddenly feels attracted to two very opposite men. One is the young Chinese artist Tiantian, who often suffers from melancholy and depression, which he tries in vain to ease through the consumption of marijuana. Soon it emerges that Tiantian is impotent. Coco's love for him thus becomes more platonic and she develops feelings of exceptional tenderness for him. Coco thinks she has found the ideal love in Tiantian. Mark from Berlin is completely different: blond, physically very attractive, he is an internationally active business consultant who begins a passionate affair with Coco. Coco is torn between her love for Tiantian and Mark's physical attractiveness - even when she learns that he is already married, has a child and will possibly return to Berlin. Coco briefly succeeds in experiencing both lust and love with the same intensity. But when the melancholy Tiantian ultimately sinks into heroin addiction and progressively deteriorates, Coco's dilemma comes to a head. Coco is caught between Far-Eastern traditions and Western lifestyles, between romantic love and unbridled lust. Coco discovers too late that she has succumbed to Mark. Without any stable orientation, she errs through modern-day Shanghai, with tragic consequences.