All the Crows in the World (2021) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

The film takes place in Hong Kong, using the city's dense urban landscape as a backdrop. Key locations include a street soup shop, a high-stakes dinner venue, a club/brothel, and a parking garage. These environments are characterized by crowds, bright neon lights, and the tension between public performance and private motives.

• hong kong
• setting
• urban
• locations
• city

The movie moves between several distinct environments in Hong Kong: a street soup shop representing everyday life, an upscale dinner setting with wealthy businessmen, a club/brothel that functions as a transactional space, and a parking garage used for transitions between scenes. These locations expose power imbalances and the intersection of money, desire, and status.

• nightlife
• club
• dinner
• soup shop
• environments

The film critiques how wealth-driven power shapes intimate and professional exchanges. Money controls access and treatment within the dinner and club scenes, determining who is heard and who is dismissed. The businessmen's interest in Shengnan's future and horoscope underscores the commodification of people and the market logic fueling their interactions.

• power
• money
• wealth
• critique
• commodification

The film uses dinners, horoscopes, and blessings as performances that mask uncertain motives. Shengnan and Jianguo reveal personal vulnerabilities in moments of candor amidst the spectacle. Dance numbers and transactional encounters blur the line between entertainment and coercion, questioning authenticity within relationships built on transactions.

• performance
• authenticity
• masks
• horoscope
• vulnerability

The film portrays surveillance through glares, leers, and the watchful gaze of patrons framing Shengnan's experience. The ritual of blessing and the consumerist facilitation reinforce social judgment and control. Power is sustained through public spectacle as much as through money, shaping how characters perceive each other.

• surveillance
• judgment
• gaze
• observation
• social control

Despite the crowded city, emotional connection remains fragile and fleeting in the film. Shengnan's timing of men mirrors the initial soup scene, highlighting a cycle of calculated encounters. The movie suggests that urban life breeds alienation even as it offers opportunity, creating a melancholic atmosphere of disconnection.

• urban isolation
• alienation
• loneliness
• connection
• city life

Zhao Shengnan is the film's central protagonist, an eighteen-year-old academically ambitious young woman who times men and navigates seductive encounters with composure and grit. She uses her skills in timing as a means of agency while revealing vulnerability and moral complexity. Her interactions test the boundaries between autonomy and exploitation.

• zhao shengnan
• protagonist
• character
• timing
• agency

Wang Jianguo is a wealthy, discerning businessman who exerts control at the dinner and club. Beneath his charm lies a colder, calculating side. He shares a moment of vulnerability about his life, including hair transplant surgery, which humanizes him but does not erase his power. He embodies the film's exploration of wealth-driven desire and predatory social dynamics.

• wang jianguo
• businessman
• wealth
• power
• vulnerability

Shengnan's cousin is the woman who invites her to the dinner and participates in the network of sex work and money that underpins the night's events. She orchestrates parts of the evening and embodies the transactional nature of the environment, serving as a bridge between Shengnan and the world of older businessmen.

• cousin
• shujun huang
• orchestrator
• sex work
• network

Sir Liu is the head businessman who presides over the group at the dinner, specifying social hierarchy and expectations. His presence anchors the dinner's power structure. He embodies the commodified gaze that defines Shengnan's value in the room, representing the pinnacle of the wealth-driven power dynamics the film critiques.

• sir liu
• businessman
• hierarchy
• power structure
• leader

The Taoist priest is a mystical figure who blesses the gathering and offers seemingly magical assurances about luck and horoscopes. He legitimizes the patrons' beliefs and adds a layer of superstition to the power dynamics, serving as another performance that masks uncertain motives within the transactional environment.

• taoist priest
• blessing
• horoscope
• superstition
• mysticism

The movie does not specify a particular historical era, appearing to take place in contemporary modern-day Hong Kong. The setting reflects present-day urban life with its contemporary nightlife, business practices, and social dynamics, allowing the film to address timeless themes of commerce, desire, and human connection.

• time period
• era
• contemporary
• modern
• hong kong