the "Shanghai I love you" Movie Skit

On the subway I held Yuri and the metal bar next to us for support. We whispered about funny looking people on the train. Yuri who was busy studying her Japanese-English-Chinese phrase book quizzed me on how to say simple things in Chinese. When it came time to get off at Shanghai Railroad Station I huddled next to the door and squeezed my girlfriend through the sliding doors and the pushing oncoming passengers.
The train station was full of travelers returning to Shanghai from their holiday exodus to their home villages. Peasants stinking of farm life and claustrophobic train rides clogged the tunnel to the exit along with the urbanites dragging roller suitcases. The tunnel took us through a market—about a half mile long—selling everything from juice to watch bands and jewelry. At the end of the tunnel was a dark, sweaty stairwell taking us upstairs.
At the top of the stair well a migrant women yelled something in Chinese that no one but me heard. She had two oversized burlap sacks and she rolled them down the long stair well. A few people were almost hit by the first tumbling piece of luggage. When she rolled the other, this time a young man walked right into the falling bag.
Outside the pollution was heavy. The white sky, the concrete and the stainless steel panels from the train station were blinding my pale eyes. The horde of hurried travelers was thick and everywhere I bumped shoulders with oncoming traffic, all the while dragging Yuri by the hand behind me.
I caught people doing strange stuff, like one couple rearranging their entire suitcase and an old man spitting into a sewer drain. At some point there are so many listless people that no one really acknowledges the presence of anyone else. One can feel alone, even around so many people. All the while, there was shrieking Chinese woman screaming on a loudspeaker with what I imagined to be some communist slogans.
Yuri found a map and peered onto it. “We need to go here, I think we have to take the long way around” she said. “I guess that’s what we have to do.” The way we thought would take us to the direction we wanted to go was blocked by a police station that must be newer than the map that we read.
We walked past the departure hall and out of the train station parking lot. We stopped on the corner in a crowd-whipped pant. “I think we are lost” she said. “I don’t know where we are.” “Let’s just get a cab and get on with it” I replied. I motioned for a taxi and there was a free one a stop light away. “No I want to find this place and let’s save some money.” “I just want to get there, common I’ll pay for it.” She shrugged and as the light turned green we ignored the oncoming taxi. Yuri looked at the map again and I impatiently waited for her to find our way. “I don’t know what this street is” she said. Just then an empty Expo taxi pulled around the corner and I motioned with my finger for him to stop. I opened the door for an unhappy girlfriend and she showed the taxi driver on a map of where we wanted to go. “Now we will be there sooner rather than later” I said smirk.
We got comfortable as the taxi honked its way through moped traffic and innocent pedestrians. As I swung my arm around Yuri I elbowed her in the face. She grabbed her check in pain. “I’m so sorry.” “Why do you have to be like this?” “I’m sorry it was an accident.” “If we hadn’t of taken a cab this would have never happened.” “I know but it was an honest mistake.” She was silent with anger now and I held her to try and calm her down.
Then I started to laugh. “Are we having a Shanghai melodrama?” “Yes” she said this time with a bit of a chuckle.
In a little bit we went down a street where there was a communist wall covered in classy and colorful graffiti. “Hey wait, I know where we are!” I said. The cabbie dropped us off in front of the gate to the art district, I paid him and we went into the refurbished factories for some coffee and art.