Shazam!
High Life
Widows
The Walking Dead
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified.
Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service.
No consensus yet.
All Critics (10) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (1) | DVD (1)
The film opens with a brilliant seven-minute take; the languid yet precise cinematography throughout gives it the seductive power of a drug-induced dream. Nov 14, 2013 | Full Review…
The film opens with a brilliant seven-minute take; the languid yet precise cinematography throughout gives it the seductive power of a drug-induced dream.
Berenice Reynaud
It's beautiful to look at, but you must have patience to enjoy it. Apr 30, 2004 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
It's beautiful to look at, but you must have patience to enjoy it.
Marta Barber
Flowers of Shanghai is a beautiful, tantalizingly oblique, and thoroughly hypnotic film, a work so sensual that one can nearly smell the perfume wafting from the screen. Aug 21, 2009 | Full Review…
Flowers of Shanghai is a beautiful, tantalizingly oblique, and thoroughly hypnotic film, a work so sensual that one can nearly smell the perfume wafting from the screen.
Rob Nelson
Sympathetically depicts ... consuming, love-sick ennui. May 3, 2005 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…
Sympathetically depicts ... consuming, love-sick ennui.
Nick Schager
Each scene of Flowers is like an exquisite and decorous mural, worth studying. Jan 15, 2005 | Rating: A
Each scene of Flowers is like an exquisite and decorous mural, worth studying.
Jeffrey Overstreet
It probably isn't Hou's best film, but perhaps it is his prettiest. Mar 5, 2002 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
It probably isn't Hou's best film, but perhaps it is his prettiest.
Jeremy Heilman
Hou's a gifted director, as even his poorer films are quite good. Oct 22, 2001 | Rating: B | Full Review…
Hou's a gifted director, as even his poorer films are quite good.
Dennis Schwartz
Contains an artistry, beauty, restraint, and patience that perhaps only Stanley Kubrick, Max Ophuls, or Kenji Mizoguchi possessed. Feb 7, 2001 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
Contains an artistry, beauty, restraint, and patience that perhaps only Stanley Kubrick, Max Ophuls, or Kenji Mizoguchi possessed.
Jeffrey M. Anderson
A gorgeous-looking film with a beautiful art direction and a camera that appears to glide through the sumptuous spaces and rooms of those four brothels in 38 stunning long takes, making it feel almost like a travel in time to the atmospheric Shanghai of the end of the 19th century.
Super Reviewer
Multiple viewings in a theater setting MIGHT get this more stars. ... could also induce suicide.
moving very slowly from one blackout scene to the next, beautifully shot in the candlelit rooms of various brothels of the 19th century, flowers of shanghai explores the intrigues of 'flower girls' or courtesans, sold as children into a life little better than slavery. there's alot of drinking, gambling and opium smoking and the film requires a good deal of patience. i probably need to watch it again as i felt as though i had smoked opium myself afterward
Hou Hsiao Hsien's play-like story of a famed brothel (Flower House) in Shanghai is a study of manners in late 19-century China. Sublimely restrained in parts, the opening sequences introducing each courtesan (flower girl) is exquisite and captivating... but I have to admit that I fell asleep in parts and it is pretty slow. The dubbing of Crimson's character also bothered me a fair bit. I loved Pearl and Emerald though, and I wish we could have seen more of Carina Lau's lovely, calm performance of the daughter of the house. Michelle Reis is great fun as the brash, arrogant, independent courtesan, so different from the other meek girls. Too many drinking game scenes! Beautiful score though, and Tony Leung is good although not spectacular. However, I did really love how Flowers... felt like a play in the theatre, from its fades in and out to its static mise-en-scene, but incorporated some great close-up shots of Crimson and Wang sitting quietly, etc. Worth another watch, but not anytime soon.
There are no approved quotes yet for this movie.
View All