There’s now a new trailer for Wong Kar-wai’s “Blossoms”. However, that’s only part of the update that we got today about the project …
It turns out that, after nearly three years of filming, “Blossoms” will premiere on Chinese television in ten days, on 12.27.23. The series is a whopping 30 episodes of around 50 minutes each — this totals 25 hours of television.
Nobody, and I do mean nobody, was as hot as Wong Kar-wai in the ‘90s world cinema scene. During that time he went on a historic stretch of films: "Chungking Express," "Fallen Angels," "Happy Together," and, the peak, "In the Mood For Love." He followed the latter up with a sequel titled "2046," which, as it stands, is the last acclaimed film he's released, almost 20 years ago.
When it was announced five years ago, “Blossoms” was supposed to be Wong’s next film, but it quickly turned into a TV series. This is an adaptation of Jin Yuchen’s novel of the same name and Wong has mentioned that “Blossoms” would complete his trilogy that started with “In the Mood for Love” and “2046.” Here’s the synopsis:
Following the lives of Shanghai residents from the end of China’s Cultural Revolution in the early ‘60s through the end of the 20th century, with some scenes set in San Francisco." Wong further elaborated his personal connection to that film saying “Shanghai is my hometown and the time that the book describes is the time of my absence from Hong Kong because I went to Hong Kong when I was 19, in ’63, I hadn’t been back to Shanghai until the early nineties. This is my opportunity for me to fill in all the things that I have missed.
This is good news for Wong fans, but there’s still no U.S. distribution for “Blossoms,” and I am wondering who would be willing to handle such an ambitious project.
The 64-year-old-director has been in a bit of a funk of late, it started with his first foray in English-language, 2007’s misbegotten "My Blueberry Nights," which starred, of all people, singer-songwriter Norah Jones as the lead and played more like a greatest hits of his better and more rewarding films.
He followed that one up with the what has become an anomaly in his filmography, "The Grandmaster," a Wuxai action epic starring Ziyi Zhang. Much like “Blueberry Nights,” it also garnered mixed reviews upon release.
Some believe that Wong hasn’t been the same since he parted ways with longtime DP Christopher Doyle in the early aughts. In a way, the critical success of their ‘90s and ‘00s films was very much due in part to the iconic cinematography. We’ll see if “Blossoms” can break Wong’s artistic dry spell.