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Hong Kong master filmmaker Wong Kar-wai has been relatively quiet since 2013’s The Grandmaster, but his long-gestating next directorial project, Blossoms Shanghai, has been properly revealed with a fresh series of posters and details.
Set to span a limited series, filming now, as well as a feature film (all directed by Wong), the official synopsis should indicate the massive project’s tone:
BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI tells the story of an enigmatic, self-made millionaire, Mr. Bao (Hu Ge), and his journey of reinvention from a young opportunist with a troubled past to the heights of the gilded city of Shanghai. Set against the backdrop of massive economic growth in 1990’s Shanghai, the series unveils the glamour that follows his dazzling wealth and his entanglement with four fabulous women that represent the pursuits of his life: adventure, honor, love and innocence.
Wong has called Blossoms Shanghai the third part of his trilogy of films including In the Mood for Love and 2046, the director’s achingly-beautiful stories of disconnect amidst sprawling metropolises, and the strands of humanity that keep people going. Expect thematic, rather than narrative, links between the films.
Originally from Shanghai, Wong had previously described the project as a means of “[filling] in all the things that [he] missed” during his time away from his home city, having moved to Hong Kong as a teen. Earlier information on Blossoms Shanghai (previously known as simply Blossoms) provided a hint as to the series’ content, focusing on “daily life of ordinary Shanghai people,” including “a hundred characters” and a span of decades, from the early-’60s to the ’90s, or roughly the time Wong had been away from his city.
With the series looking to cover the 1990’s, one might speculate that the feature film–confirmed to still be in development at Jet Tone Films–will act as prequel, filling in decades prior to Bao’s success in the Blossoms Shanghai series.
Starring Hu Ge, Ma Yili, and Kris Wu, filming is underway in Shanghai, where Wong is scheduled to continue production for a lengthy nine months, making Blossoms Shanghai unlikely to see completion for some time still. Though after COVID-19 hurdles it’s good to hear such an ambitious project from one of the greatest working filmmakers is moving along.
Source: The Film Stage