Set and shot in Shanghai in 1948, Crows and Sparrows, perhaps more than any film of its era, reflects the mood of the moment: both the poverty and persecution associated with the impending collapse of the KMT, and the exhaltation of filmmakers who knew that victory for the People's Liberation Army was just around the corner. It is a story of apartment house tenants whose lives intersect when a bullying KMT official commandeers their quarters for himself. Zhao Dan, known here for his roles of the thirties in Crossroads and Street Angel, had his best loved role in this film, which he also co-wrote; he plays the peddler, Little Boss. In his book Dianying, Jay Leyda calls Crows and Sparrows "a milestone in Chinese film history, worthy to be shown alongside the best of international cinema produced in the postwar years.... The shooting was finished a few days before the People's Liberation Army entered Shanghai on 2 May, but it was cut and synchronized after the new administration was established.... This time everything that the censors removed from the dialogue (in the original script) was replaced with a vengeance in the final recording: for the first time the audience heard from a screen the antigovernment slang that was familiar on the streets in 1948 and 1949.... This casual naturalism determined the approach to every element in the film, its acting most evidently, its direction and camerawork most subtly."