Flowers of Shanghai

Rating:
Summary: Art House Flick.
Review: This is an exquisite film that will appeal to those who are captivated by historical Chinese Culture. There's very little story line and make no mistake, this is an art house film. Not for those with a small attention span.
We watched the first 5 minutes and determined that we must have a bottle of wine and take-out before venturing any further. Once those needs were taken care of, it was easy to watch the sumptuous beauty and subtle plot unfold. It truly is a beautiful film.

Rating:
Summary: Restrained? Muted? Boring!
Review: This movie was tedious. Absolutely nothing happens. Blocking, which is supposed to reflect the tension between the actors, is nonexistent. In fact, the characters hardly move. The cinematographer's only trick is a slow pan; there are no cutaway shots or close ups. It's almost as if the director sought to evoke in the viewer the opium-induced stupor many of his characters reside in. I am no stranger to Chinese cinema; I own a few dozen titles. Nor am I unsympathetic to movies with serious themes; in fact, that is precisely what I find entrancing about Chinese cinema. But this movie will, quite simply, bore you to tears.

Rating:
Summary: boring
Review: this was so boring, the lighting by candlelight added nothing to the movie. I found it all somewhat confusing, I love Chinese films but this one really fails. It was hard to follow just what was happening at any time in the film.

Rating:
Summary: I thought brothels were exciting...
Review: Until I saw this movie. Between the insipid chinese twang music, different angles of the same character having a smoke, and a million pans around the dining table, I slumped my head down like a dead man, the only visceral reaction caused by this celluloid chang dynasty brochure. When I got this home, I couldnt wait to get it into the player, expecting languid scenes of geisha sensuality. Instead I got a vicious crotch tease! It was so painful I fast forwarded my way through. Next time you make a movie about a brothel, you deliver the goods. Show me the honeys! Don't wanna waste my money!

Rating:
Summary: Hookers and hookahs.
Review: Well, somebody may have finally beaten Carl Dreyer's record (e.g., *Gertrud*) for fewest cuts in a feature film. I'd be surprised if there's much more than 20 cuts in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's *Flowers of Shanghai*. I know this film is Chinese, but it's almost the cinematic equivalent of a Japanese tea ceremony: infinitely perfect, and not caring if it requires an infinity to attain perfection. Paucity of edits aside, the camera is still extremely busy in the movie: if a student of film wants to learn about CAMERA MOVEMENT, this is the place to come. The camera gently, slowly encircles any given scene, allowing us plenty to look at and consider, whether it's the objects in a room or the expression on a peripheral character's face. But the movement is never so dreamy as to neglect to include what's of dramatic interest. Or put it another way: each frame exists in its own universe, charged with its own meaning. Needless to say, the Occidental viewer had better come to grips with this Oriental perspective tout suite, or he'll find himself bored to death. It's nothing less than a different language of cinematic narrative. What the hell's it about, anyway? Incredibly beautiful prostitutes ("flowers") and their wealthy clients in 1880's Shanghai. All of the scenes occur in several high-end brothels, and only certain rooms therein. Much time is taken showing us a Chinese drinking game oddly similar to our rock-paper-scissors, and even more time is expended in the filling, lighting, and smoking of opium pipes and tobacco hookahs. The plot loosely follows the amorous career of a wealthy gentleman (Tony Leung, very expressive). We learn that the courtesans he's involved with are as tetchy as any Southern belle, and hold out hope for marriage. The girls' dreams of security are what create the prime tension in the movie: who will achieve success, who will fail? In the meantime, changes are nibbling in the corners of this insulated world of languid ease and lovemaking: that roving camera can't help but pick up the modern Victorian knick-knacks that decorate the rooms. The tall European clocks in the corners are counting down an end to the static quietism in *Flowers of Shanghai*: the viewer is dimly aware that the Shanghai brothels will soon be made obsolete by an encroaching Western modernism. The movie is a daguerreotype of a way of life on the brink of extinction. It's also a masterpiece of its kind. Recommended for adventurous viewers with a certain amount of stamina, however. [The DVD by Winstar doesn't look all that good. Lots of bleeding color and even LINES across the picture. A movie as formally beautiful as this deserves considerably better treatment. Criterion, I'm talking to you.]