改革开放的中国，红男绿女享受着时代的馈赠，但是许多青年被西方腐朽堕落的价值观所蛊惑，失去了蓬勃向上的劲头与朝气。花城汽水厂的青年住处员何大壮（冯巩 饰），在经过两年学习后准备进入南方职工业余大学参加毕业考试，谁知路上却被扒手划破口袋偷走了准考证。任凭他好说歹说，校方都不允许他入场。何大壮气急败坏，决心要好好惩治那些损人不利己的小偷。此后他先是误抓了手伸进老婆兜里的男人，之后又在抓贼时被对方栽赃，后来多亏经验丰富的刘所长（段建国 饰）为他洗刷了冤情。经人介绍，何大壮与女青年秋萍（凌慧 饰）相亲，偏偏对方正是他被栽赃时遭到盗窃的女青年，两个人之间难免误会继续。 吃了一连串亏的大壮，发誓要以业余警察的身份和小偷们抗争到底……
1992年，炒股热悄悄在上海兴起。许多老百姓厌倦了平凡无味的生活，开始纷纷投入这个让人疯狂失常的怪圈中。 香港男人阿伦（刘青云 饰）热衷赚钱，因此忽略了女友安娜的感受。随着时间的推移，两人的关系逐渐出现裂痕。安娜不辞而别来到上海，阿伦于是追来这里。失望的阿伦在上海小青年三宝的介绍下，权且借炒股打发时间，也因此结识了公交车售票员阿莉（潘虹 饰）。阿莉和丈夫、女儿住在底层的弄堂里，邻里间吵架拌嘴不断，生活条件迟迟得不到改善。凭借阿伦的指点，阿莉终于尝到日进斗金的快感，她的生活逐渐改善，周围人也对她尊敬有加，只是在这一过程中她渐渐成为股票和金钱的奴隶，沉湎其中，无法自拔……
An outstanding comedy whose poetic style hearkens back to the films of Wes Anderson. It tells of a youngster focused on winning the nationwide drumming championship in spite of certain obstacles – such as not having any drums! A film that is every bit as hardcore as Jimmy Page’s guitar, and every bit as endearing as Robert Plant’s waistcoats. There are a lot of films that stick to the hackneyed theme of the outsider bent on fulfilling his dream in spite of all the odds – thanks to which he not only achieves his coveted success but, moreover, instils hope in the hearts of the weak and degraded through his courage and determination. But none of these films has had a protagonist as charismatic as Power – a young man obsessed with drumming drumlessly (read: steady gesticulation set to the rhythm of legendary heavy metal anthems), whose aim is to win the nationwide drumming championship, support striking miners in New Mexico and win the heart of a girl who went deaf at the age of three at a Status Quo concert. This brilliant comedy – reminiscent of the films of Wes Anderson in its fascination with bizarre twists on standard genre themes – will thrill you even if you are not a fan of 1970s hard-rock dinosaurs. But you mustn’t forget Power’s creed while you’re watching: “I don’t need drums. I am drums!" About the director Ari Gold received a Student Oscar in 2000 for his film Helicopter, an experimental short film in which he used authentic photography, scene reconstructions and animated sequences to tell of the tragic death of his mother. The Sundance Festival accepted Gold’s short student films for three consecutive years, and one of them – the sixty-second film Culture, which the filmmaker accompanied with a 10-point manifesto signed with the pseudonym Ari von Gold – elicited (particularly in Serbia) a wave of similar films of exactly one minute in length avowing “Dogma 99”. In addition to filmmaking, Ari Gold is also a dedicated musician – he sings in the bands The Honey Brothers and The Gold Brothers, he plays the ukulele, the piano and occasionally the drums. The film Adventures of Power is his first feature-length film.
