Flowers of Shanghai « Movie from 1998

Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Michiko Hada, and Michelle Reis, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s gorgeous period reverie is an intoxicating, time-bending experience that traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai “flower houses,” where courtesans live confined to a gilded cage.