Jasmin
Шанхай, 1880 годы, четыре шикарных борделя (цветочные дома): у каждого есть мадам, куртизанка в молодости, старые слуги и созревающие девочки на обучении. Мужчины собираются вокруг столов с едой, играя в пьяные игры. С опийной трубкой в руке. Женщины живут внутри темных панельных стен. Душная атмосфера, как будто Чехов был в Китае. Меланхоличный Ванг клиент Кримсон; оставит ли он ее ради юной Жасмин? Эмеральд планирует выкупить свою свободу, с помощью клиента Ло. Перл, стареющий цветок, воспитывает своенравную Джейд, которая думает, что ее возьмет замуж молодой хозяин Жу. Женщины увядают или смотрят сквозь пальцы или теряют надежду.
Fen Baker's Girlfriend
A rather dejected Mei-li Chen lives with her extended family in the suburbs. She drops out of college when the boy she has a crush on finds a girlfriend. Mei-li eventually ends up selling tickets in a movie theatre. A great camaraderie then builds up between the two cashiers in the small ticket booth.
Hui
На шее у Гао – большая семья и безответственный друг-шалопай по прозвищу Тупоголовый. Парню надоело такое существование. Он мечтает купить ресторан в Шанхае и жениться на своей девушке. Для того чтобы добыть денег, он задумывает аферу. Все идет как по маслу до тех пор, пока темпераментный Тупоголовый не вступает в конфликт с теми, с кем лучше было не ссориться.
After his wife dies during childbirth, Ku-cheng leaves his children behind in their rural village while he finds work on a construction site in the city. He develops a relationship with a widow but despite their intimacy, he refuses to remarry.
Liang Ching's Sister
An actress preparing to play in a historical epic is terrorized by someone faxing her pages from her stolen diary; has colorful flashbacks of her affair with a now-deceased man; and imagines black-and-white film-within-a-film scenes of the movie she is about to appear in.
Chen Lin-Lang
In Taiwan, a young woman, Lin-Lang, is released from prison after serving ten years for terrorist activity. She had turned to bomb making in grief after her mentor and lover, An Rong, who was also her university professor, was arrested for political activity and, she presumed, executed. In prison, she learns Rong is alive, and she maintains her spirits and sanity for the years in her cell by holding imaginary conversations with him. When she is released, she discovers he is married, has a child, and lives conventionally. She finds him; he's not happy to see her. How she reacts to losing the center of her life becomes the subject of the film.
In the first half of this century, young Li Tienlu joins a travelling puppet theatre and subsequently makes a career as one of Taiwan's leading puppeteers.
Script Supervisor
In the first half of this century, young Li Tienlu joins a travelling puppet theatre and subsequently makes a career as one of Taiwan's leading puppeteers.
Mei Mei
A-Guo and A-Dou are two teenagers living in an industrial town in Taiwan, who fight, loaf, and cause trouble all day and hang out with Jie, a young gangster. When Jie's gangland patron is gunned down, the trio set out to revenge the killing. As a result, the two teens are forced into hiding.
