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 October 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
Xu-Hao Liu	...	Vagabond # 2
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

Evocative but empty

First, a disclaimer: I love so-called "art films", from Cocteau and Eisenstein to David Lynch and Krystof Kieslowski. I have a long attention span and am willing to extend considerable effort towards appreciating any work of art.

Having said that, The Flowers of Shanghai was largely a disappointment. Yes, the sets and costuming are sumptuous. True, the mood evoked by the film is seductive. And the subject matter--the relationships between courtesans and their clients--is at least provocative. But for a number of reasons, Hou fails to deliver a film that rises above those elements.

The reasons are many. First, the plot is minimal--hardly compelling--mostly relying upon the petty machinations between the courtesans and the clients who try not to become too involved with them. But such a minimal plot can only engage if we become involved in the characters, and this is very difficult to do.

That's problem number two: the characters simply aren't compelling. The men tend to be equivocal and emotionally distant. The women tend to be shallow and manipulative. Since there are essentially no close-up shots, and the physical expressions are very restrained, we have no sense of people's emotional states. There is not one character that we can really care about.

Third: the editing is leisurely. Really leisurely. Glacial. Very few directors can pull off a five minute interior shot with almost no dialogue or action; Ozu was one. But Hou--although better than many contemporary directors--isn't up to Ozu's level by a long shot. Hou's scenes, unlike Ozu's, don't so much engender our contemplation as they engender tedium. A director has to be able to recognize when a scene has come to the end of its life; this he doesn't seem to be able to do.

A note to the curious: every shot in this film is an interior shot; you never see the outdoors--not even the sky through the windows. And despite the subject matter and the warnings of adult content on the box, there are no sex scenes; there is no nudity. Structure-wise, the film depicts three activities: men playing "rock, paper, scissors" around a table, people having their little dramas in private, and people brooding.

That's basically it.

I would like to be able to say that The Flowers of Shanghai was more than just a 2-hours-plus visual curiosity, but it simply isn't. And more the shame because of its wasted potential.