Flowers of Shanghai
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Movie Reviews of Flowers of Shanghai
Movie Review: Hothouse Flowers
Summary: 5 Stars
After the disappointing job Winstar did on "The Puppetmaster" DVD presentation (which I gather may have been due to the poor quality of the source print available to them), this comes as a very welcome relief - the presentation looks to be in the correct aspect ratio this time which is so important given the very careful framing and composition that is a trademark of this director. There is very little in the way of extras - for Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films that would be invaluable since they do tend to benefit from some background knowledge on the part of the viewer.
As for the film, it's simply wonderful. Check out the opening scene and the amazing way the camera moves slowly and deliberately back and forth to take in different aspects of the action, picking up many nuances (who says Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films are boring to watch!) in behavior and body language. Sure you have to concentrate to get the most out of this film (just like you have to concentrate when watching e.g. Dreyer's "Gertrud") but the rewards are there for those that do.
If you have an interest in the very best of world cinema outside of the usual multiplex fare, you just have to see this film.
Now if Winstar or Criterion (or whoever) could pick up some of this director's earlier work (City Of Sadness, Summer at Grandpa's etc.) that would be great.
Movie Review: A formal masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Flowers of Shanghai is a fascinating film, beautiful film, capturing the life n a turn of the century Shanghai brothel. The film is told through key scenes, all of whih are exquisitely shot in low-light.
Some reviewers here complaining about the pacing, but they obviously miss the point. The slow shots, and scenes, help imerse you into what was a very different world than today's West or East, and by the time the film is done, you have been imersed in the language and environment of these characters, and understand the rules and structures they live under.
Yes, there is not one linear story, but in truth several, as each dialogue also talks about other characters, so in that sense, this movie feels like a novel of that time, in which a world is revealed within a diner scene.
The movie is not all style, and in fact, I find more like a dense layer cake, absorbing you into its experience.
Movie Review: Mesmerizing, Claustrophobic And A Bit Sad
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a gorgeous, claustrophobic and mesmerizing movie about the flower girls -- the prostitutes -- who live and work in four elegant brothels -- the flower houses -- in Shanghai during the late 19th century. The film is set entirely in these houses. There is no natural light, everything is lit by dim lamps and candles. The world is made of dark, carved wood, silks and polished lacquer. There are no cuts, just slow dissolves to black and then into another scene, and the scene can be a continuation of a sequence separated only by minutes, or a move to a different flower girl in a another of the brothels. The effect is almost dream-like.
Flower girls are purchased by the "aunties," the women who run the brothels, when they are 7 or 8. The aunties raise them, feed them, clothe them and train them in the profession of pleasing wealthy men. None have much of a future unless they can fascinate a customer enough to begin a long-term relationship ending in marriage as a second or third wife.
There is Crimson who is supporting her family, and who finds herself unable to keep her relationship with Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). There is Jasmine, who manages to marry Wang, and then is foolish enough to enter into an affair. There is Emerald, who is ambitious and knows her worth, who is determined to buy her freedom. There is Jade, increasingly popular and who thinks a young customer's statement of love is true. And there are the men, who spend hours dining and playing drinking games in the houses, attended by the women who pour their wine, laugh with them, prepare their opium pipes and entertain them privately by appointments made with the aunties. By the end of the movie we also realize that while we hear less of Jasmine, Crystal, Pearl and the other women we met or heard about earlier, we now are hearing more about Jade, Treasure, Golden Flower, Laurel, Silver Phoenix, newer flowers of Shanghai. Yet the men remain the same, only a bit older. I want to emphasize that this is no soap opera. Everything has a value, everything can be bargained for, but subtly.
I think this movie is a fascinating look at a different time and style of life. You have to stay with it, though. It's one of those films where at first you may not be sure much is happening. A good deal does, but you have to be open to it.
The DVD picture looks great, rich and dark; the subtitles are black-edged yellow and easy to read quickly. The only extra of significance is a filmography.
Movie Review: Lovely Film
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a beautiful film with rich characters, beautiful sets and costumes and exquisite cinematography. Warning, though, its a film that focuses on exploration of character by showing vignettes from the lives of chinese prostitutes living in Shanghai in the late 19th century. There is very little "plot" so if you're looking for fast paced excitement you might not like it.Movie Review: Nothing happens in this fancy period piece.
Summary: 3 Stars
I was very looking forward to seeing this movie, and I'd bought advance ticket to see it a the VIFF in 98, because it was the first film from Carina Lau since her award-winning film Intimates(Self-Combed). I thought it was going to be her new career high point, but as it turned out, it was just a mediocre "group-scene" movie done like a documentary. Not much great acting was generated from the all-star cast from HK, Taiwan, and Japan. I was quite disappointed.
It was very beautiful visually, because they had done a lot of work to the set, costumes and lighting. I found it very hard to follow this film, because most of the actors delivered their lines in Shanghainese, and only Tony Leung spoke some Cantonese for his part. Most of the characters just sit around and smoke pipe and drink tea and wine throughout the movie. There was hardly enough drama to stimulate the viewers. Carina Lau did her best with the way she smoked and poured the tea to her clients, but nothing serious happens that would require her to give more than two or three expressions. I really thought it was wasted her time to be in this movie, considered that she's been in 50 movies and done parts that are so much more challenging than this one.
Anyways, you have to be totally interested in old-world Chinese cultures in order to be amused by this movie.