Scriptwriter :
Chu Tien-wen
Photographer :
Li Ping-pin
Editing :
Liao Ching-song
Sound :
Tu Duu-chih
Set :
Hwang Wen-ying
Music :
Yoshihiro Hanno
Cast :
Tony Leung
Michiko Hada
Michelle Reis
Carina Lau Ka Ling
Jack Kao
Wei Hsiaohui
Rebecca Pan Wan Ching
Production :
3H Films
Distribution :
Carlotta Films
74 rue de Charenton
75012 Paris
01 42 24 10 86
[email protected]
www.carlottafilms.com
Year : 1998
Screening : 2024, 2006, 1999
DCP, Color, 124 mn, OV mandarin SUBFR
Official Selection Cannes 1998
In China, at the end of the nineteenth century Shanghai Flowers was the name given to the courtesans of the House of Flowers located in the area of the foreign concessions. Whore houses were forbidden to the Chinese elite and these luxury houses were the only places for rich merchants and high dignitaries. In the context of arranged marriages and submissive wives, they would go to these houses not for sheer sexual relationships, but to afford the supreme luxury of getting the expression of feelings and love. These special brothels were closed to the world outside and offered rites and ways established by women; they were another world to momentary escape the social pressure and oppressive constraints through opium, mahjong and love
