Flowers of Shanghai

Flowers of Shanghai
by Hsiao-hsien Hou

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Movie Reviews of Flowers of Shanghai

Movie Review: Believe The HHH Hype! - A Formal Masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars

All the same, this is an extremely subtle narrative style, a minimal style even. I call it minimal because director Hou Hsiao-Hsien uses so little variation in each of these narrative devices. Take the sets for example. There are no exterior shots at all in this film. In fact, I only noted only one scene in which I could discern any daylight at all. The film is made up entirely of scenes set inside the tight and always poorly-lit chambers of "Flowerhouse" brothels of 19th Century Shanghai. Such consistency adds an almost tangible claustrophobia to the already omnipresent feeling of stasis I mentioned earlier. It also lends the film a sense of the everyday (in the sense that Paul Schrader uses the term). I found this really very brilliant and efficient film-making. Placing every scene in one or a few locations is a device not uncommon to theater, but one fairly unusual to film. The Flowerhouse becomes for the viewer a true microcosm, which affords the viewer uninterrupted focus (tunnel-vision even) while, at the same time, prodding the viewer's curiosity about what goes on outside. Watching "Flowers of Shanghai", I couldn't stop wondering just what all the men in this film do when they aren't patronizing the brothel? Where do they come by their money? Do they have families? Hobbies? It really isn't addressed, and isn't important to the film either. So long as the viewer is aware that the characters must do *something* else during the day (and Hou Hsiao-Hsien makes sure of this), it is unnecessary to show exactly what that something is.

Outside of formal considerations the film still has a lot going for it. The plot, though relatively low on drama and entirely devoid of histrionics, is engrossing. In brief, the story is driven by the nuances of the close relationships of the wealthy men and the "Flower" girls within this insular community. This aspect reminded me in many ways of Mikio Naruse's (excellent) film, "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs." Like that film, "Flowers of Shanghai" looks at these relationships both in economic and in what can only be desctibed as familial terms. Going far beyond the clear issues of gender, probably the most interesting part of the story is its portrait of the friendships, rivalries, jealousies, obligations, and manipulations just within the 'family' of girls living together in the Flowerhouse, and how these interactions effect the larger 'family' that includes their male patrons.

"Flowers of Shanghai" is a clear formal masterpiece, and manages to tell a fascinating story at the same time. Certified genius Philip Lopate (who also often writes for the NY Times) calls the film "one of the cinematic highpoints of the 90's." The film-fest pass-holder hype surrounding Hou Hsiao-Hsien is well-founded. But be warned that the same stylistic handling that drives me to cry 'masterpiece' will leave some crying of boredom.