Dang-zai takes part in a beauty contest to be the city's "Calendar Queen" quite by chance, thinking that she is going to be interviewed for the position of kindergarten teacher.

Accidentally, she is chosen as the winner by the wealthy old lady who sponsors the contest, because Dang-zai looks plainer than the rest and she does not want her husband to seduce the new "Calendar Queen".

One day when he is performing, Aak-syu happens to come out of this shop where a besotted sugar daddy has been buying her and other young women gifts and demanding kisses in return.

But the wealthy old lady drinks the wine mixed with magic potions by mistake and faints on the bed in the boss's room.

A power failure occurs that night, the boss mistakes the old lady for Dang Zai, and it ends with a farce.

Reviewer Andrew Saroch of Far East Films wrote, "'Shanghai Blues' is, overall, superior entertainment, but by the time the end credits roll it's hard not to think of what might have been.