The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
Flowers of Shanghai
When
Wed 22 Mar 2023
Hou’s beautiful adaptation of a late 19th century novel set in the “flower houses” of Shanghai’s European concession is an extraordinarily hermetic and dreamlike portrait of its circumscribed characters (including Leung in a stellar performance). Hou’s slow dance-like film has a languid, almost-elastic quality, drawing us into the lost and melancholy world of the brothels and their inhabitants as they make their way through the intimate, intricate, ritualised interiors. In this remarkable, atmospheric, somnambulistic film – shot entirely in Taiwan by the great Lee Ping-Bin – the past is indeed another country.
Also screening on Wed 22 March
Program
Crying on the Inside: The empathetic stardom of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) – Wed 22 Mar, 7pm
Hero (2002) – Wed 22 Mar, 9.10pm
In the Mood for Love (2000) – Wed 29 Mar, 7pm
A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991) – Wed 29 Mar, 8.55pm
Hard Boiled (1992) – Wed 5 Apr, 7pm
Cyclo (1995) – Wed 5 Apr, 9.20pm
About the program
Quiet and introspective as a child and outcast by his parents’ separation, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (1962–) never aspired to much. In 1982, while working as an appliance salesman, Leung was encouraged to take up acting by his childhood friend Stephen Chow...
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
