Hai Ma Ge Wu Ting 海马歌舞厅

Description:

Tucked away in a corner of Beijing, that cosmopolitan metropolis, the Hippocampus Cabaret glitters with neon and echoes with song night after night. Fashionable men and women gather here, experiencing the dramatic changes wrought by the tide of reform and opening up, filling their long-empty and helpless inner worlds with a dazzling array of material culture. The club's owner (Liu Bin) and its female manager (Chen Xiao-Yi) greet and see off guests day after day, navigating a whirl of all sorts of people. Here people drown their sorrows, here they talk freely, here they joke, here they ponder; love and friendship, passion and hatred, all converge in this place. The little Hippocampus Cabaret is nothing less than a stage of joy and sorrow that distills the myriad faces of the world...
The series boasted a "massive lineup" for its time, with a creative team that brought together heavyweights such as Wang Shuo, Hai Yan, Liu Zhen-Yun, Mo Yan, and Liang Zuo, while the cast was a galaxy of stars who were at the height of their fame. The theme song was performed by Hong Kong singer Angus Tung.