Flowers of Shanghai
1998
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Stars: Annie Shizuka Inoh, Shuan Fang, Michiko Hada, Jack Kao, Carina Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Rebecca Pan, Michelle Reis, Vicky Wei
Looking around the net at other reviews for this movie, all sorts of positive adjectives were thrown at it, "masterpiece" being one of the most used (and the one thrown in big letters on the video cover). I might be missing something, but I didn't find this film a masterpiece as much of an utter bore. The movie circulates around a brothel in late 1800's Shanghai, where the workers ("flower girls") and their clients interact. They drink, eat, smoke opium, and talk. They talk a lot. This whole movie is talking. Early on, one of the characters says "It's pointless to talk about this" and then they go on for two hours talking.
Now, before you call me an intellectual philistine, I know that movies don't need explosions or bare breasts to be good, but Flowers of Shanghai is so slow-moving and so talky, it bored me within the first fifteen minutes or so and it was a struggle to get to the end. Even if I was in the mood for a "thinking" movie, I sure as hell wouldn't pick this film. I didn't care at all about the characters. The mood created by the filmic techniques and script made them seem limp to me -- I kept saying to myself "what was that scene good for?" throughout the movie. Visually, the cinematography (all the scenes are done in a single take, followed by a fade in/out) and the film's lone set drove me nuts after a while. A lot of reviewers gushed about this movie's visual style -- I didn't see anything that interesting here. Some of the costumes are nice, but that's about it.
Flowers of Shanghai comes off as more as a stage play put on film than anything else. If I want to see something like that, I'll go to the theatre and see it live -- or perhaps not. This seems like the kind of movie that film critics say they love because they feel they have to, not because they want to (in fact, several US critics put the movie on their "ten best" list of 1998 just becuase it was ranked highly at film festivals). Quite honestly, this is probably just not my kind of movie. I've enjoyed "arty" films from all over the world, but my idea of entertainment (which films -- despite any "artistic" pretenses -- are) doesn't include watching two hours of static shots of people rambling on and on and on. As the saying goes, "your mileage may vary," so you might still want to check out this movie if you're into the real arty stuff (or just want to try and impress one of your film teachers). But don't blame me if you fall asleep halfway through.
RATING: 3
This DVD is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com
