Cult 90s Director Returns After 12 Years with New Series We’re Already Obsessed With!

He is one of the most renowned Asian directors of all time. First noticed by film enthusiasts in the 2000s, Wong Kar-wai has only produced three films in the past two decades, despite his impressive line-up of masterpieces such as Ashes of Time, Chungking Express, and In the Mood for Love.

The third installment of a trilogy that began 25 years ago

His latest feature film, The Grandmaster, was released back in 2013. This ambitious martial arts saga features his favorite actor, Tony Leung, playing the role of Ip Man, the famous mentor of Bruce Lee. Over the last decade, the Chinese director has been working on his first-ever series, a project that had been delayed numerous times but is finally ready to be unveiled.

The American publisher Criterion recently released the first trailer for the series called Blossoms Shanghai. The show consists of 30 episodes, 19 of which were directed by Wong Kar-wai, who is also credited as the creator of the project. Described as the final chapter of the trilogy that began with his films In the Mood for Love and 2046, the series portrays the social climb of an ambitious young man in 1990s Shanghai.

The series encompasses all of the director’s obsessions, along with his flair for polished aesthetics, meticulous lighting, and camera effects (focus, slow motion, etc.). The shooting of this ambitious epic spanned over three years, followed by an extensive post-production process.

Wong Kar-wai ventures into uncharted territory with his first series

Quite unusually for his career, the Chinese filmmaker has assembled a cast of young actors he has never worked with before. The first images seem to confirm the absence of his regular leads: Tony Leung, the main protagonist of the first two parts of the trilogy, as well as his muses Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi.

The series trailer:

The series premiered in China on CCTV-8 on December 27, 2023, but had not been aired internationally. Its broadcast on the official Criterion channel starting November 24 offers hope for wider distribution of the series, including a potential release in France in the near future!