4K Restoration from the 35mm original negative of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI Streaming in Film Forum's Virtual Cinema: Repertory Program Starting November 20th
/"[Hou Hsiao-hsien is] one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema."
– New York Film Festival worldwide critics' poll
A scene from Hou Hsiao-hsien’s FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI (Taiwan, 1998)
Bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI (1998, 113 minutes) traces the romantic intrigues, jealousies, and tensions swirling around a 19th century Shanghai brothel, where the courtesans are ensconced in opulent splendor, yet forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is Tony Leung Chiu-wai's taciturn Master Wang, whose relationship with longtime mistress Michiko Hada is agitated by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a procession of long takes, FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the action remains tantalizingly offscreen. In Cantonese and Shanghainese with English subtitles.
Restored in 4K from the 35mm original negative in 2019 by Shochiku in collaboration with Shanghai International Film Festival with funding provided by Jaeger-LeCoultreat L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
Gartenberg Media distributes HOU HSIAO-HSIEN: EARLY WORKS to educational markets in North America.
THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI (1983)
