Flowers of Shanghai / Hai shang hua (1998) [Criterion Collection]

Director: Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Writer: Eileen Chang (translation), T'ien-wen Chu
Stars: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis

An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, this gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai “flower houses,” where courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor but forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is the taciturn Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), whose relationship with his longtime mistress (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a languorous procession of entrancing long takes, Flowers of Shanghai evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the dramatic action remains tantalizingly offscreen—even as its emotional fallout registers with quiet devastation.

Extras:
- New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New introduction by critic Tony Rayns
- Beautified Realism, a new documentary by Daniel Raim and Eugene Suenon the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Lee, producer and editor Liao Ching-sung, production designer Hwarng Wern-ying, and sound recordist Tu Duu-chih
- Excerpts from a 2015 interview with Hou, recorded as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oral History Projects
- Trailer
- English subtitle translation by Rayns




All thanks to the original uploader