The most high profile prestige C-drama Blossoms Shanghai (繁花) premiered right after Christmas and is close to finishing its 30-episode run. The drama is directed by HK-auteur Wong Kar Wai of In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express Fame and stars Hu Ge as the male lead. Planning started ion 2019 and filming took 3 years not to mention its Wong Kar Wai’s first drama directorial effort in his 30-plus year career. The Douban ratings opened at 8.2 which is majorly impressive but the netizen and critic reviews have been mixed, with Hu Ge getting criticism for oily acting the same diss on Yang Yang. The female leads are Ma Yi Li, Xin Zhi Lei, and Tang Yan with lots of familiar face C-drama land stars in supporting roles. It’s set in the 1990s Shanghai in an era with fast modernizing capitalism but in Wong Kar Wai fashion it seems from an even earlier era from the trailers and also has his signature visuals and moody vibe.
Trailer for Blossoms Shanghai:
It’s WK Wei not Wai?…
It’s most definitely Wai…
Wong Kar Wai.
It’s not a good drama. Ratings are steadily falling and would be way worse if the drama preceding it didn’t have very high ones.
It’s very glossy on the surface. Great cinematography. And that’s about it. It’s amusing to watch Hu Ge’s PR trying to blame it all on old man glasses instead of just bearing with the criticism.
I like Hu Ge a lot but just watching the trailer I wasn’t impressed. No soul and intensity like The Great Tony Leung and The Legend Leslie Cheung.
WKW has been so influential on both the Western and Eastern directors. Watching the recent cdramas like JTL, BL. Etc you can see his aesthetics from his great Wuxia film Ashes of Time.
I wish WKW had picked the actor who played Prince Jing in NIF. He has the soulful sad eyes like TL.
I like Hu Ge too, mainly for his impressive performance in Nirvana in Fire. Nonetheless, that’s the only drama of HG that I got to finish without FF. All his other dramas aren’t that interesting cos of plots and directing. I’m not intrigued by these trailers either. Other than Wuxia genre for which I still consider HK has the best directing styles among all, I’m not a fan of HK styles in other filming areas, TBH. These trailers look pretty HK-ish. In that sense, I’m not really interested in checking out the drama even there have been aggressive promos of the drama on Weibo.
Is duoban ratings still relevant, when fans, depending on their mood n the type of actors , the ones they like n the ones the dislike, to either downgrade the rating or upgrade the rating of a show. The most shocking rating for me last year was A journey to love, from the 7 range to the 6 range, just because they didn’t like the ending.personally I don’t see it has something to rate low about. The duoban ratings is such a joke.
Haahaha… I think people got traumatized by the finale. I am ok with it because it’s realistic. They were assassins/ cannon fodder and dispensable. Reminds me of NATO fighting Russians to the last Ukrainians. The leads were very aware of this. They were already used and backstabbed by the ones in power. Also I was glad the leads had their old married couple moments since they were not going to live.
I kind of like Cdramas for not ignoring death. After all it’s very much part of life.
Yeah it pretty much realistic rhey all died considering their mission. They’re just cannon fodder in the struggle between two countries
I dropped it after six episodes – it was hard to even watch it to that point. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
1. Weak story
2. Tang Yan’s voice.
Never watched anything with tang yan, what kind of voice does she have?
@Yuhyi
Tang Yan’s voice is high pitch in this drama. It’s annoying to me even though I watched some of her other dramas before. I don’t know why this particular one is bothering me.
I am also likely going to drop it although I reached episode 6 because of Tang Yan. Her voice is shrill but her forthright character is endearing.
Story is weak but propped up by characters that have good chemistry and acting. They look like they really do know each other and have each other’s back.
I think Hu Ge and Wong Kar Wai embark on this project being prepared there will be those that likes it and those that did not.
The ratings are important for the investors… I wonder what will the ratings be towards the end. As for drama itself, Not everyone likes Chunking express or In the mood for love…I read many who did not enjoy it, But I know many that loved them including myself. To each its own.
But I can guess Hu Ge must be so drained after filming this drama, he had to travel around rural China and filmed about is beauty and how to protect its beauty with his good pals. He had to travel and feel free…
Unfortunately, Hu Ge hasn’t had decent works ever since Nirvana in Fire yet he’s still receiving “Best Actor” awards for dramas and films that aren’t good. His acting included, isn’t good anymore. His acting may have suffered from the long break, pandemic, his own lost of passion to act, etc. Sure, fans can claim that his projects are artistic, non-idol, independent films that usually aren’t popular with the audience but the truth is, they’re bad. The projects always seem to have critically acclaimed directors but the stories are plagued with issues or fell short and depended heavily on his image to make it, but even then, they didn’t go anywhere. His recent projects like Wild Goose Lake, Bright Future, and All Ears weren’t good. They received mixed reviews too, but because it’s Hu Ge, the golden celebrity, there’s nothing he can’t get away with. I’ve read a recent interview where he had to defend his acting and once someone has to defend their acting, and especially coming from him? That says something already. Yes, his glory days are over which is normal, since no one can last forever or have hits all the time, but the problem is, him or his team won’t accept that. If they can’t accept the truth, which can change and help him improve back to his hey days but with better roles and stories, the hope of seeing him in another truly good project is over. Acting is an art that fluctuates. It’s not a permanent gift, so he needs to understand that. He has always understood that but like everything else, once you get to a certain status, it’s hard to admit flaws. Blossoms Shanghai is nothing but bright lights. Sadly, they focused too much on filmography and aesthetics and forgot to write a good story that can genuinely show the beauty of that era. In recent years, as much as there have been increasingly bad works that dominate the industry, the Chinese audience knows a bad drama/film when they see one too. We don’t need these fabricated and bought ratings to tell us that this show is so successful and good when it’s not. A lot was invested into this drama, time and money, so it’s understandable that they would waste more time and money to promote it as some grand comeback for Hu Ge. They have to. They can’t lose on this one. And I’m sure he’ll sweep all these awards for it too which is sad. Hu Ge, who was once a decent actor, has now become nothing but someone who wins an award if he attends. It’s such a pity since in recent years when he’s been gone, older actors have been getting really good mature and interesting roles like the Knockout of this year, so todays market isn’t just about the young anymore. All these variety shows that have brought older artists back into the limelight, too. Now is the time, Hu Ge, to choose better films and dramas. There’s a limitation due to age but he’s not there yet, so that can’t excuse him for the poor choices lately.
Interesting points. Although I like him a lot in Nirvana in Fire, I did find nothing really interesting in other works of his. I still think he is a decent actor but does need more interesting projects, mainly good scripts, to work with.
@Alexa
I agree with you 100% on this. There are no actors or actresses can act well or choose good projects every time in every dramas or movies. Hu Ge is no exception also. His recents dramas were not that great. Personally I was shocked when he was chosen as Weibo’s King last year. Honestly I didn’t think he earned it. At least I think Crystal Liu deserved it more than him.
To me all dramas or movies must at least have these “ingredients” to make them good: good acting, good directing, good story and more…
@Alexa
Every word of this is true.
The problem is that nothing will change. Too much has been invested in this drama and they cannot afford to say it flopped. They can’t hide the ratings but they can everything else.
He is going to be protected because of this. I see all the awards going to them and him and the myth he is the golden child will continue.
It’s funny actually because Jin Dong has the status Hu Ge craves when it comes to general audiences in China. And he doesn’t need any cover ups or protection for that. He does his thing quietly and he does it well.
HK used to make some of the best world cinema up to the early 2000s. WKW was one of the most beloved film festival auteurs. Even Martin Scorsese was inspired by HK cinema and made a remake of Infernal Affairs. Hong Kong had the third largest motion picture industry in the world after Hollywood (US) and Bollywod (India)and the second largest exporter. I don’t think they are even in the top 10 now
Now WKW is making C-dramas. I’m not surprised reviews are mixed at best. WKW’s style is not going to work for most C-drama viewers.
Camera work is top notch. I love WKW’s work but I think its hard to get this generation excited for his type of storytelling. Its very old school. This has been in the works since 2019, its hard when expectations are so high, it doesn’t matter how acclaimed you are as a director or actor, sometimes its not fated to work out in the end.
This my most anticipated c-drama for the last several years, and I have mixed feelings. My biggest issue, aside from the visuals over substance, is that the book and series are intended to be an ode to Shanghai. Shanghai is a character in this story. Yet, 繁花’s Shanghai neither looks nor feels like Shanghai at any point in time. It looks like Hong Kong. If you really reach, you could say it’s Shanghai 1930s, Baz Luhrmann-style. WKW has spent too much time out of Shanghai that he has no grasp of the city. None of the characters feel Shanghainese either. The only thing Shanghainese about this show is the dialect, and the news inserts.
On the pro side, the visuals are beautiful. Cinephiles will have a feast with this. 辛芷蕾 / Xin Zhi Lei has never looked more beautiful than here. She looks like a classic, cinema goddess. WKW must love her because every single shot of her looks like a Chanel perfume commercial. She can retire after this. No director will be able to make her look this good again.
I believe Hu Ge, Tang Yan, Mali, Zheng Kai, and more are born, grew up, studied till Uni, and still living in shanghai, they are as true Shanghainese as it gets. The cast is as real as you can get. Expect Xin Zhilei who is not from Shanghai nor studied there. Many of my Shanghainese friends do say the characters are very real to them. They can feel the true soul of Shanghainese in the characters acted by the artistes. It is not acting as such anymore..
But I do agree there is mix response to who enjoyed this drama… some loved it…some found it all intense for them.
I do think camera loves Xin Zhilei, she is just so gorgeous, sexy and womanly… I think she might benefit the most from this drama to be honest, her CFs, sponsorship may just rise higher. China really lack a female artistes with this charm under 30s… there are many sweet, innocent looks…
Dont listen to Chinese Netizen, they have so much negativity in their belly and they also have mafia who demand money from every drama otherwise they will bomb the rating, even they get money they ask for more after more episode. Yang Yang drama is in the top 3 most watched. Bai Lu have 3 nost watched drama this year and won award, yet the netizen said its failure year for Bai Lu. They mocing Zhou Dong Yu, but she won award also. So ignore Chinese netizen always
I too feel online comments may not necessary reflect on real time viewership. I find your comment on online Mafia really interesting. I think that must be very true…there must be syndicate that targets such projects to generate active online discussion…it can be positive or negative depends on how they get paid.
It is not just anti fans creating problems, it is much more then that.
This drama is literally dropping in ratings, steadily down.
What mafia. People just don’t like it. If they liked it TV ratings would at least be flat.
The drama before it had 3 so the start of this one is really high. In spite of that, it is around only 1.5 now because it is steadily declining because viewers are leaving which for a drama of this director, this cast and this investment is a fail.
Mafia. Jfc
@Smh
It’s not the flop you want it to be. It never went to 3, it was 2% at the start, dipped a little and now it’s back up and stabilised around 1.8%~1.9%. The knockout was 2.5%, so it’s doing decent enough in comparison and it’s higher than any traffic star in last year.
@Guest
You should learn to read. The drama before it had really high ratings so this one would always start high. I never said this one went to 3.
And sorry but yes, for the investment, in that context, this drama is a flop. Huge director plus practically number 1 actor and huge investment, three years of editing and 1.6 are the ratings.
Epic flop in context.
Agree. The most important thing Is if you like it!
The show is doing fine. Promotions are aggressive but its tv ratings have stabilised at a very decent level without water data and the number of ads are impressive. Give these numbers to any traffic artist and they will be screaming explosive dramas/top traffic everywhere. Not that this show hasn’t been pushing the same narrative, but at least there’s no noisy annoying fandom in your face. But it’s not good enough because it’s WKW…lest people forget, WKW has always been a box office meh other than The Grandmaster – he’s never been commercial, nothing ever really happens in his movies and at his worst, he’s indulgent and a haphazard storyteller. What he does best is capturing lingering emotions, what’s left unsaid and not expressed explicitly. Not everyone likes his stuff. The rating seems about right, it’s flawed and they can cut the show by a third, but it’s still a really good piece of work, and the cast has done well enough. Even if the show is not for you, you should at least watch some of the clips online (I’ve only seen them weibo though) where everything comes together perfectly in that short sequence- visuals, music, the specific frames of the actors that WKW chooses to linger over and the dialogue that intersperses with music in the background – my favourite is the one of Tang Yan with Faye Wong’s song on the background. I hope when they eventually translate the show, the lyrics get translated too, because it makes a difference to the scene.
Ok, I watched ep1 cos I’d like to see it myself. But what’s wrong, Hu Ge? Was it bcos of your acting as others whined about or the character was just not that charismatic? It’s not very likable from the get-go. Cinematography has strong HK-ish feels like the trailers. I’ll watch more eps to have my personal verdict at the end.
The show is a bullshit, and I couldn’t continue watching it after just two episodes. Too fake, and nothing close to any truce to the early reform and economic opening days of the early 90s in Shanghai, not to mention the fashion style and environment setting are all too fake, nothing like the reality of that street where people open bunch of restaurants in the early 90s. The story of the stick market is even further from the truth, and Wang used what he are familiar with if the Hong Kong understand gangs to portrait Shanghai stock market, not even knowing how the IPO stock prices were set in Shanghai. What’s most disappointing, is the the total missing of the fundamental changes during the economy reform where state enterprises became private through management buyouts, and the resulting large layoffs happened at the time that has deep impact to the society. Overall, other than some eye candies in dress fashion and some arrogant personalities, this is just a fake drama that has nothing close to the historical reality.
So well said. I binged 30 eps of the drama (sometimes in Shanghainess version that was better than the Mandarin version). Woohoo! Lots of fast forwarding due to empty plot development and too much voice-over by Hu Ge himself rather than telling stories through motion. It feels lazy and sloppy! The overall impression I got hasn’t changed from those trailers and the first few eps – it’s a Hong Kong-ish film in the backdrop of historical SH. The plot was more like a gangster’s legend in the old-day setting of 1930s till pre WW II given how the story was told and the entire ambience through the lighting and camera work. It’s very HK-ish we’ve seen in a very typical HK film. I didn’t get the vibes of the blooming era in China’s unprecedented history of economic reform pre-WTO period. Also, what is the main theme of the drama? What is the story trying to say? I don’t get that other than plodding through incoherent storylines focusing on the relationship between the hero and the three FLs that unfortunately did not resonate well with the historical backdrop back then.
None of the characters are likable or memorable. Sorry for Hu Ge that I see downgrading of his performance in a hyped drama like this. Not sure if that’s due to Director WKW’s directing styles or there’s just not much to sell in the almost void storyline.
That being said, there were indeed some impressive shots of camera work and transitions from scene to scene in ep. 14 -19 or so. They are artistic and aesthetically intriguing. But still the camera work wasn’t all that consistent and great from the start to the end. Too many close-up shots magnifying particular actors’ faces besides overly blurry dim lighting lots of the time were making no points . It was said that some eps were done by other assistant directors not WKW himself. Perhaps that’s why the quality of cinematography looks inconsistent.
This is the only work of Director Wong I’ve ever watched. Based upon this drama alone, I’m pretty sure I’m not his fan. He might have had some very memorable films though, but not this one IMO.
The script wasn’t great. That’s my last but perhaps the greatest complaint about the drama. It’s overrated overall! I personally would give 6.5/10 at best for the rating.
I love Hu Ge, but agree with a lot of comments that his subsequent projects have been somewhat lackluster. I have a soft spot for almost everyone in Nirvana in Fire. Wang Kai has had a few good dramas after Nirvana in Fire. Of course I also love Jin Dong and Wu Lei :). No costume drama really compares to NIF nowadays.
The drama is not as great as people make it out to be but it is definitely not a flop. It’s still has areas that are great even if there are aspects that people might hate.
The visuals are good although it has a little too much of that smoky vibe I feel. Although the camerawork is good, it is also damn irritating because “Wong Kar Wai”.
I think he sometimes is being artistic for the sake of being artistic. If you notice carefully, after a few episodes, you might be a little dizzy because the camera is constantly moving.
Even for certain frames that should be meant to be still, the camera is dollying downwards. It’s however consistent, and it’s not due to movement by the cameraman, where the camera is held by the cameraman instead of being on a tripod.
It’s on a dolly moving downwards. It’s his stupid style of creating a vibe, because motion creates the subtlety that things are in action, so there’s excitement.
There are people who literally stop watching because they feel like they want to puke. I felt that way after 6 episodes.
The drama feels like watching a movie that’s cut into many episodes. Like each episode is opening a new movie. It’s exciting, but after episode 6 or so I feel like it’s style over substance.
The thing that’s won me over thus far is the chemistry between the cast and the feeling they really do know each other. I like the characters, and I think He Ge’s acting and Tiffany Tang’s acting is good but I also get why some people disagree.
Tiffany Tang’s voice is meant to be shrill because of her character.
I might drop the drama, because I had a taste of the hype.
It requires a bit of staying power to watch.