FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI - DVD-CRITERION COLLECTION

Details

• Release Year: 1998
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: 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 the 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.; ; DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES ; ; • New 4K digital restoration ; • New introduction by critic Tony Rayns ; • Beautified Realism, a new documentary by Daniel Raim and Eugene Suen on 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 ; • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Jean Ma and a 2009 interview with Hou conducted by scholar Michael Berry
• Cast: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis, Carina Lau, Jack Kao, Rebecca Pan, Vicky Wei, Hsuan Fang, Annie Shizuka Inoh, Ming Hsu, Josephine A. Blankstein, Pauline Chan, Simon Chang, Tony Chang, Wei-kuo Chiang, Hui-ni Hsu, Yiu-Ming Lee, Yu-Hang Lee, Yu-han Lin, Tsai-erh Luo, Moon Wang, Hsiao-hsien Hou, Bangqing Han, Eileen Chang, T'ien-wen Chu
• Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou
• Runtime: 1:53
• Company: 3H Productions, Shochiku Company, Janus Films, The Criterion Collection
• Media Format: Movie