#1077: HOU, Hsiao-Hsien: Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
HOU, Hsiao-Hsien (Taiwan)
Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
Spine #1077
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, this gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai "flower houses," where the courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor but forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is the taciturn Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), whose relationship with his longtime mistress (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a languorous procession of entrancing long takes, Flowers of Shanghai evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the dramatic action remains tantalizingly offscreen -- even as its emotional fallout registers with quiet devastation.
113 minutes
Color
Color
5.1 Surround
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writers
Screenplay by Chu Tien-Wen.
The Film
The Extras
The Booklet
Forty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Jean Ma and a 2009 interview with Hou conducted by scholar Michael Berry.
Commentary
None.
Introduction
By critic Tony Rayns.
Beautified Realism
A documentary by Daniel Raim and Eugene Suen on the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with DP Mark Lee Ping-Bing, producer and editor Liao Ching-sung, production designer Hwarng Wern-ying, and sound recordist Tu Duu-chih.
Excerpts
From a 2015 interview with Hou recorded as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oral History Projects.
Trailer
The Booklet
Forty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Jean Ma and a 2009 interview with Hou conducted by scholar Michael Berry.
Commentary
None.
Introduction
By critic Tony Rayns.
Beautified Realism
A documentary by Daniel Raim and Eugene Suen on the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with DP Mark Lee Ping-Bing, producer and editor Liao Ching-sung, production designer Hwarng Wern-ying, and sound recordist Tu Duu-chih.
Excerpts
From a 2015 interview with Hou recorded as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oral History Projects.
Trailer
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