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Flowers of ShanghaiRating:
Release Date: 16 April, 2002 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $12.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Flowers of Shanghai Reviews
Least interesting of all Chinese films I have seen so far
I have seen about 45 Chinese films and I have to say "Flowers of Shanghai" is the least interesting one I have seen so far. I don't mind very slow movies and some of the other Chinese movies I have liked, such as "Yellow Earth" are also slow paced.
"Flowers of Shanghai" takes place in a brothel visited by very well to do Qing officials during the 1880's in Shanghai, a city notorious for its brothels between the late 19th century to the 1930's. While this historical context provides for a potentially interesting storyline, I did not find the scenes of drinking, games and conversations among the Qing officials and their expensive ladies interesting.
I am sorry to say I do not recommend "Flowers of Shanghai" unless you are a fan of Hsiao-hsien Hou, the director.
Please save your money
Well, to put it in the most polite terms I can think of, this film is on my all time 10 worst films list. I think this film definitely has the potential to top that list.
I am a native speaker Chinese speaker. Plus, I am a native speaker of the Shanghai dialect, the same dialect the actors/actresses in this movie are supposed speak. Well let me tell you from a language standpoint, I had absolutely no idea what those actors/actresses are saying. No clue whatsoever.
It was so painful to hear those actors butcher the Shanghai dialect so badly that I couldn't keep myself from burstting out laughing throughout the movie. It was THAT BAD!? For crying out loud, if the actors couldn't speak the Shanghai dialect, at least use do some dubbing and use some voice actors that can actually speak the Shanghai dialect.
The lead male actor in the movie butchered his Shanghai dialect so badly in the beginning of the movie, that he ended up switching to his native Cantonese dialect for the remainder of the movie. God this is embarrasing.
For a native speaker of Chinese, and a native speaker of the Shanghai dialect, I had to read subtitles in order to understand what's going on in this movie. On top of this, I had to read the subtitles in ENGLISH! Yes that's right, this DVD doesn't even include a Chinese subtitle!
I basically ended up fast forwarding through this movie. The director really should have done some serious work in the cutting room. This movie have the potential to be a good 10 minute short film. But at an hour and half in length, this movie is one of the WORST I have ever seen.
More Customer Reviews (14 total)
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