Don’t be put off by the title. Though not quite as baffling as the English name for Redemption (its Chinese title is something akin to ‘The Wedding Ring of Death’), the unfortunate title American Dreams in China is, to the film, the equivalent of foisting a kitschy wedding suit upon an erudite English professor.

Comfortably ensconced in the sweaty palms of the coming-of-age genre, the film charts the rise and fall of three idealistic youths, played by Huang Xiaoming, Tong Dawei and Deng Chao. Having had their dreams of studying abroad scuppered by their poor English, the three classmates decide to open a cram school so that other budding students will not suffer the same fate. Drawn together by their ideals, the three friends are subsequently torn apart by the astonishing success of their idea, which outstrips their wildest dreams.

Originally titled Three Chinese Gentlemen, the film is loosely based on the life of Yu Minhong, whose private tutoring company now boasts more than 15,000 teachers across 49 cities in China. The narrative of the film spans from the late 1970s to present day, but despite this sprawling sweep, it remains at its heart a ‘coming-of-age’ story. Swirling around the loss of innocence as a result of the follies of first love, the unattainable object of infatuation is played by Du Juan, and quite unattainable she is – Du Juan was the first Chinese model to ever grace the cover of Vogue Paris.

Directed by feted Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-Sun, and with cinematography by Wong Kar-Wai regular Christopher Doyle, the film is backed by considerable creative clout. Like Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, the personal is conflated with the political, rendering them inseparable. The question, ‘What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?’ is posed not only to the individuals caught in the story’s net, but to Chinese society as a whole.

The cost, it appears, is absolute submission to the hegemony of American imperialism. We exchange the currency of our own language for the currency of another – English – thereby consecrating its dominance. In this respect at least, the title American Dreams in China seems wholly appropriate.

American Dreams in China (directed by Peter Chan Ho-Sun, Mainland/Hong Kong 2013) is in cinemas from Saturday 18.