“An emotionally shattering masterpiece... Flowers of Shanghai is one of the most sublimely beautiful films I’ve ever seen, and one of the most unbearably sad.” – Manohla Dargis
Presented as part of the Jack H. Skirball Series, in collaboration with UCLA Film & Television Archive and the American Cinematheque.
The breathtaking cinema of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the leading figure of the Taiwanese new Wave, is the subject of a retrospective that spans more than three decades. As one of the participating venues, REDCAT shows a new 35mm print of Hou’s richly textured masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai (Haishanghua, 1998, 125 min.). An heir to the great modernist legacy—with its use of elegantly staged long takes, performances by many non-professional actors, and a radically elliptical mode of storytelling—Hou has created a body of work that has opened up exciting new horizons for the medium.