Flowers of Shanghai | |
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Chinese | 海上花 |
Literal meaning | Shanghai flower |
Hanyu Pinyin | Hǎishàng Huā |
Directed by | Hou Hsiao-hsien |
Screenplay by | Chu Tʽien-wen |
Story by |
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Based on | The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (Chinese: 海上花列傳、海上花列传) |
Produced by | Shozo Ichiyama Yang Teng-kuei |
Starring | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai Annie Shizuka Inoh Michiko Hada Michelle Reis Shuan Fang Jack Kao |
Cinematography | Pin Bing Lee |
Edited by | Ching-Song Liao |
Music by | Yoshihiro Hanno |
Release date |
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Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | Taiwan |
Languages | Shanghainese Cantonese |
Flowers of Shanghai is a 1998 Taiwanese drama film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. It is based on the novel The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (1892) by Han Bangqing, which was originally written in the Wu language (吳語) and translated into Mandarin Chinese by Eileen Chang. The film stars Tony Leung as a wealthy patron and Michiko Hada, Annie Shizuka Inoh, Shuan Fang, Jack Kao, Carina Lau, Rebecca Pan, Michelle Reis and Vicky Wei as "flower girls" in four high-end Shanghai brothels. It was voted the third best film of the 1990s in the Village Voice Film Poll conducted in 1999.[1] The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards.[2][3]