Jack Kao

Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Michiko Hada, and Michelle Reis, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s gorgeous period reverie is an intoxicating, time-bending experience that traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai “flower houses,” where courtesans live confined to a gilded cage.

A woman goes to Hong Kong to sell an ancient artifact, unaware of the diabolical poison inside and the madmen who will do anything to possess it.

Two escaped prisoners join one of the most powerful gangs in Shanghai, the Green Gang, as the right-hand men of the head boss.