[海上花]

4K Restoration.

An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, Taiwanese master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien's gorgeous period reverie traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies and tensions swirling around a late-19th-century Shanghai brothel, where the courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor, yet 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 Crimson (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a 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. (Note adapted from Janus Films.)

A Janus Films release. Restored in 4K in 2019 from the 35mm original negative by Shochiku in collaboration with the Shanghai International Film Festival at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. With funding provided by Jaeger-LeCoultre.