The film takes place against the backdrop of elderly care homes, kindergartens, the 219 Park, and various cityscapes. It portrays the urban ruins and inner turmoil caused by economic decline, and depicts the social contradictions arising from recession and the lingering effects of post-socialism, capturing the impact on the lives and values of people in the Northeast region of China.
An Anshan Story uses a real family's life as its backdrop. The director casts his grandpa, the revolutionaries of the left wing as the film's lead, retracing his family saga of post Chinese cultural revolution history.
In an isolated country house, a couple—one in a state of paralysis, one in a state of panic—clashes over the next step.
