It would have made for a brisker movie and a more convincing war story. It doesn't hurt that many of these same critics have been beating the drum for Taiwan, the island state that nurtured Ang Lee, among many recent, lesser known filmmakers. It's misleading, however, to squeeze Taiwan's many directors into the same file drawer, even if some similarities can be found. Like Lee's surprising box-office hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Flowers of Shanghai is based on an old Chinese novel. Likewise, Flowers is set in the past, in its case the brocaded brothels of the port city of Shanghai in the 1890s.
Women play crucial roles in both films.
And then the comparisons dwindle in the face of contrasts. Crouching Tiger is an epic scale romance of swordplay and fantasy. It moves like a movie. Flowers of Shanghai is claustrophobic, a closely observed particle of reality. Linear and episodic, it is too stage bound to rise to the full potential of the cinema.