Flowers of Shanghai (1998)

Original title

海上花

Directed by

Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Genre

drama film

Country

Taiwan

Runtime

2h 10m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 114 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1880s Shanghai, wealthy patrons visit high-end brothels where flower girls entertain and form relationships. The film follows these interactions and the subtle social dynamics within the elegant houses.

slow-burncontemplativemelancholicvisually lushintimaterestrainedatmosphericglacial

What happens

Flowers of Shanghai is a 1998 drama film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. It is based on the novel The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (1892) by Han Bangqing, which was originally written in the Wu language (吳語) and translated into Mandarin Chinese by Eileen Chang. The film stars Tony Leung as a wealthy patron and Michiko Hada, Annie Shizuka Inoh, Shuan Fang, Jack Kao, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Michelle Reis and Vicky Wei as "flower girls" in four high-end Shanghai brothels. It was voted the third best film of the 1990s in the Village Voice Film Poll conducted in 1999. The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. It was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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• The Poet (1998)
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