Hai shang hua (1998)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writers:

Eileen Chang (translation)
T'ien-wen Chu (writer)

Release Date:

17 pa¼dziernik 1998 (Japan)

Plot:

Shanghai, the 1880s, four elegant brothels (flower houses): each has an auntie (the madam), a courtesan in her prime...

Plot Keywords:

Male Female Relationship | Clothing | Prostitution | Rivalry | Based On Novel

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Shuan Fang	...	Jade
Michiko Hada	...	Crimson
An-an Hsu
Annie Shizuka Inoh	...	Golden Flower
Jack Kao	...	Luo
Carina Lau	...	Pearl
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Wang
Firebird Liu	...	Vagabond # 2 (as Xu-Hao Liu)
Rebecca Pan	...	Huang
Michelle Reis	...	Emerald
Vicky Wei	...	Jasmin

Also Known As:

Flowers of Shanghai

Runtime:

130 min | Argentina:127 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) | Japan:120 min | USA:125 min

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Cantonese | Shanghainese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:13 | France:U | USA:Unrated | Singapore:PG

Company:

3H Productions

Beautiful, moving, and insightful

This hypnotically beautiful film may recall a dream, but the material world of money and power, indentured servitude and beatings everywhere intrudes on it. We discover in the contrasting stories of Emerald, Pearl, Crimson, Jade, and Crystal, how some survive as "flower girls" and others are crushed. Far from being boring or cold, the film is compelling dramatically and emotionally. "Flowers of Shanghai" seems to contain boundless reserves of sadness and rage -- it is as if the sex and violence are not on screen because Hou cannot bear to show them. If "Flowers of Shanghai" is an opium dream, as many have said, the opium is both bringing pleasure and suppressing pain.

"Flowers of Shanghai" shows compassion for its characters, both the innocents and those who survive through cynical manipulation. The scene-length takes in medium shots work to establish respect for each person within the film, while at the same time bringing about a kind of "rectification of names," systematically exposing the hypocrisy of the brothels. It's appropriate that one of the few moments of violent action in the film occurs when Master Wang smashes the exquisite interior decoration in a room: "Flowers of Shanghai" shows the seductive beauty of the brothel then reveals it to be a cage. Everyone in the film is on multiple levels unfree: the women are financially bound to the brothels and dependent on the whims of their clients, and almost everyone is addicted to opium.

The film never leaves the brothels. This expresses how the brothels in fact own the women. However, as Stephen Teo noted in CinemaScope, there's another detail that's easy to overlook: the women's bound feet prevent them from easily walking more than a few feet.