In the opening moments of Wong Kar Wai’s first TV series, the glowing, gripping “Blossoms Shanghai,” Mr. Bao (Hu Ge) is on top of the world. He explains (via narration) how the emergence of Shanghai’s Stock Market ushered in “the greatest explosion of wealth in human history,” an explosion that’s launched the former factory worker to stratospheric riches. “I have great ambitions,” Mr. Bao says. “But I don’t know if this is all a dream, or a reality from which we can’t wake.”
No sooner does the sleek, besuited businessman allude to living in a nightmare disguised as a fantasy than his feared fate comes to fruition. A car crash sends his suitcase filled with money swirling into the night sky. Onlookers rush to gather whatever loose bills they can grab, while Mr. Bao lies motionless on the street, bloodied but wide awake — for now. How long can he hold on? To his life? To his fortune? To his dream? And are the three inextricably entwined, or is there a reality where one can exist without the rest?
A melodrama rooted in commerce and ripped open by compassion, Wong’s 30-episode “limited” series sees the legendary director in familiar and foreign territory at once. Mr. Bao is a stoic lead trapped by invisible forces and torn between passions. He’s tied to three distinct women and prefers the richest food with the right people over the priciest dishes at the hottest venues. Fans will take comfort in these familiar models, but they may be shocked when the first few episodes cram in more dialogue than his previous films combined, while much of what happens — internally and externally — is underlined by dense, even repetitive exposition. It can be difficult to appreciate the series’ sumptuous period details while keeping up with all the subtitles, which makes the introduction an overwhelming experience, for better and worse.
Bridging the gaps, as usual, is Wong’s greatest subject and the series’ most fascinating element: time. Bound to the narrative’s present, “Blossoms Shanghai” is caught between the past and the future, as if the twin forces — one fixed and one flexible — will come smashing together at any moment to erase the halcyon days only fools think can last forever. Mr. Bao is no fool, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to their temptations. Value in business is built on demand, and demand is ethereal — it only exists when someone says it does. No matter the material goods he cloaks himself in, his life is still built on intangible worth. Can he manage to preserve the refined reality he’s put together, or will it slip through his fingers like sand in an hourglass?
Considered from our modern-day lens (aka late-stage capitalism), the answer seems obvious, but therein lies the suspense in Mr. Bao’s personal journey. Set in China’s Roaring ’90s, “Blossoms Shanghai” goes all out in depicting the country’s unprecedented financial boom — and its eye-popping attractions. Crowds fill the lavish entryways of trendy clubs and clamor for access to bustling markets. Neon lights pulse and glide in currents, reflecting off the shimmering accessories of flush passersby. Buildings tower and gleam as if burnished by the money flowing through them — none more so than the thrumming heart of Shanghai’s nightlife, Huanghe Road, a teeming swathe of high-end restaurants (a stretch of which Wong and his team recreated to scale).
Yet disaster is always lurking despite the ample evidence of Shanghai’s immense, immediate prosperity. Even in the series’ opening hours, which rush to establish the country’s frenzied obsession with the new market economy and how Mr. Bao harnessed it through the tutelage of his wise Uncle Ye (You Benchang), there are searing reminders of what happens when similar bets don’t pay off. Hearts are broken, friendships are betrayed, and lives are lost, all in the hopes of getting rich quick, and it’s in these tertiary stories surrounding Mr. Bao’s opulent bubble that “Blossoms Shanghai” finds the friction needed for lasting tension.
It’s also where Wong is at his wiliest. In the majority of the six episodes screened for review, the ending of one entry will be revisited at the start of the next entry — but don’t mistake them for mere recaps and skip ahead. Within each retelling, the scene expands, and new details emerge. Sometimes they work to advance the plot, sometimes they flesh out character motivations, and sometimes they better explain how a pivotal turn worked out the way it did. Including these alternate scenes establishes a structure fit for the juicy twists that sustain a grand melodrama — not only making it easier for episodes to end on a key revelation, but to hint at secrets waiting in Mr. Bao’s expanded backstory. (The trailer glimpses moments from his past that aren’t included in his initial introduction.)
The director’s playful engagement with time also lends “Blossoms Shanghai” a flexible temporality, as if everything that happens is both unknowable and inevitable. It’s a fitting description for a 30-hour limited series — not as open-ended as an ongoing series, yet long enough (and extravagant enough) to seem boundless — and seeing how Wong utilizes his broadest canvas to date is motivation enough to stick around for the full mural.
Not that you won’t want to anyway. The early onslaught of subtitles aside, “Blossoms Shanghai” is easy to fall for. It’s sly and funny, charming and fierce, even while the series may lack the subtle grace of the artist’s finest films (and feel, at times, like a capitulation to what TV used to be, back when the future César Award winner started out writing soap operas, more than what it’s become in the fading era of small-screen auteurism). Still, “Blossoms Shanghai” is active and alive in a way that invites attentive viewing as much as it rewards that investment.
Time is not a thing to be wasted, and Wong Kar Wai knows that better than most.
Grade: B+
“Blossoms Shanghai” premieres Monday, November 24 at 8 p.m. ET on The Criterion Channel. Three episodes will be released weekly through the end of January.