Flowers of Shanghai(dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
It had a beautiful look and soundtrack, but was the film as equally as beautiful? Not quite. It definately was boring until the narrative took form. It definately showed a little too many scenes of them playing the drinking game at the table, but the film veers away from that in it's last half hour or so. It wasn't as engaging as it could have been because of it's restraint. It felt detached and cold to a degree, which for a film like Goodbye South, Goodbye makes sense, but here doesn't make that much sense. I guess you could argue that it's detached and cold because of the social code that everybody had to prescribe to back then not allowing people to express their true emotions in a very obvious fashion. The ending felt just right in it's restrained and simple nature. It was definately good, but it definately was no masterpiece either.
*** out of ****
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