Flowers of Shanghai

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Kevin L @Lakeman 03/01/2025 Just to look at, this is a gorgeous film. These are some lush, luxurious brothels, but they're more than simply houses of pleasure. They are social centerpieces for the wealthy to gather and treat themselves to the good life, for sure. But there's also a deeper, more complex element as well. Often, it seems, these men become attached to the 'flowers' they see most often. And the feelings are sometimes returned. This makes for tricky psychological/emotional issues. These women see who calls on them. And there is social protocol to follow, class issues, and the interpersonal dynamics of those most entangled. Interesting subject matter, but the movie is also repetitive. The complaints of the women. The moping of the men. The party scenes. And always with the opium. Lots of opium. 3.2 stars See more S R @ScottR 01/27/2025 Saw it since it was on the SnS 2022 list of movies. I found it interesting at first, but then it just became tedious and nothing much happened. I guess it was important to show the opium culture taking its toll on the affluent in China, but it just seemed so bizarre despite some nice cinematography. I wouldn't see it again. SLC library CRI DVD. See more 05/09/2022 As far as filming quality and atmosphere are concerned this is an artistic movie. The story of the life behind the Scenes of a flower house operation was portrayed well. It fell short however in delivering an impact. There was no heightened conflict between the Con artists and their gullible patrons. I would have preferred to see more reactionary responses after the true deception was exposed . Master Wang was the only one made aware of the women's dishonesty and infidelity. Instead when he is supposed to be angry about being taken advantage of ;he does absolutely nothing. The listless and drab ending that followed was a major let down. Had the storyline ended with a fire or something more dramatic it might have been more than just average.Alas it was mediocre at best. See more 12/11/2021 The cause and effect are interspersed. The foreground and the aftermath unfold simultaneously. The four spaces do not overlap. The looseness of the threads preserves the character of the spaces. The contrast of lines forms a dialogue between the spaces. The complexity tends to be subdued, but the subtlety is almost natural. See more 06/02/2020 Watching grass grow might be just about as interesting. Slow, slower and slowest. The characters offer little about themselves other than trite cliches. Costumes are sumptuous but overmatched by a very very thin repetitive dialogue with little movement/action. See more nick s @NikitaSbt 03/14/2019 The theme of desperate and hopeless life of courtesans was one of the pivotal motifs for another master of the Oriental cinema Kenji Mizoguchi. The Japanese director came up with this topic in The Woman in the Rumour and Street of Shame. The courtesans of Mizoguchi don't live in poverty, yet there is no hope for better living for them. The female protagonists from the story of XIX century writer Han Bangqing are somehow similar, and Hou Hsiao-hsien employs this story for his Flowers of Shanghai screenplay. We see the scenes from several rich Shanghai brothels (or flower houses) designed for wealthy clients. These are the flower houses where only a few girls live, and they serve to the clients who spend days and hours with them again and again. The wealthy men come here to dine, gamble, smoke opium, splurge money, bring expensive gifts to the women. The houses are also used for arranged marriages. Every scene is enriched with dense colours and gorgeous decorations. The smoke of opium and gossips both courtesans and their wealthy patrons soak in this atmosphere of fake paradise. These men seemingly have forgotten about their life outside the flower houses as the scenes of the film never go beyond the brothel. The women get lots of money from the clients, but their debts also grow. We see women fading away as time goes by, and men being enthralled by the stunning allure of these courtesans, elegance of ornate ambiance and smoke of opium. The wealthy patrons illustrate drug-addled passion and emptiness of tremendous wealth, while the women act as more pragmatic characters seeking to escape their cages in the flower houses. Though they end up learning they belong there, and very of few of them would have a chance to escape, just like in Mizoguchi's films about courtesans. The influence of Mizoguchi can be also observed in the style Hou develops in Flowers of Shanghai. It is described by a particular way of mise-en-scèn creation and subtle beauty of slow-paced story-telling Kenji Mizoguchi was famous for. Hou enhances the film with something magnetic and mesmerizing which would be growing on the viewers after they had seen the film. This is a very atmospheric and gracious film which is shot entirely in swoon-like long takes which is another courtesy to Mizoguchi's favourite cinematic technique. The most impressive long take is probably the opening 7-minute scene at the dining table in flower house: nothing, but wonderful and artificial paradise we glance at. To tell the stories of oppressed lives of courtesans Crimson, Jade, Emerald, Jasmine, Pearl and other girls Hou had the fantastic cast in his possession: Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis, Carina Lau, Vicky Wei. The story though revolved around wealthy patron Wang portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai delivering the great performance in collaboration with Hou once again after A City of Sadness. It is spectacular to observe these tense situations the courtesans are involved in, as we see a lot of peculiarities and details of Chinese culture, customs, and traditions of the XIX century. Nevertheless, Flowers of Shanghai is the movie that preliminary draws attention with the unique and sublime aesthetics. See more Read all reviews

Flowers of Shanghai

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