FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI  (1998)  ***

Reviewed 10/7/98

Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien is certainly one of the five most critically acclaimed directors of the past ten years but not a single film of his has been released in the U.S. Don't expect this one to make it either. His style of extremely long takes is anathema to most American sensibilities, and a good dozen walked out during this screening. Still, this film about the struggles of "flower girls" in a brothel is exquisitely shot, and if it ultimately adds up to less than the sum of its parts, it is still worth seeing as part of the ouvre of this gifted filmmaker. The biggest name in the film is the multi-talented Hong Kong actor Tony Leung (Hard Boiled, Happy Together) who was also in Hou's City of Sadness in 1989. Hou seems a bit confused as in one segment, he puts in a voice-over from Leung's character, a patron of the brothel, even though the film had never been seen through his point of view and never really would again. Instead, the film moves from flower girl to flower girl examining their positions in this miniature community.