Flowers of Shanghai (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Output: Flowers of Shanghai (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien is an intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze. It 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.

The BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES include a new 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, a new introduction by critic Tony Rayns, and 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.

Additionally, there are excerpts from a 2015 interview with Hou, recorded as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oral History Projects, a trailer, English subtitle translation by Rayns, and an essay by film scholar Jean Ma. The special edition also includes a 2009 interview with Hou conducted by scholar Michael Berry.

product information: