Wong Kar-wai makes his debut in the world of series with a story about capitalism that has triumphed in China.

BarcelonaSince series became considered a prestigious product, many filmmakers have ventured into the world of television. Wong Kar-wai, cult director thanks to films like Chungking Express either Desiring to love, has made the leap to this medium with Blossoms Shanghai, a series that allows him to return to his hometown, which he left as a child and emigrated to Hong Kong with his family. For his debut in serial fiction, he has adapted a 2012 novel by Jin Yucheng centered on a sort of Shanghai Gatsby. The series has a total of 30 episodes, but starting this Tuesday, Filmin will premiere the first 15 (it will air five each week, Tuesdays, June 17 and 24, and July 1).

The protagonist of Blossoms Shanghai is Ah Bao, a man born into a wealthy family that lost its fortune during the Cultural Revolution. When the Shanghai Stock Exchange reopened in the early 1990s after being closed for 40 years, Ah Bao became Mr. Bao and amassed a significant fortune thanks to China's economic reforms. He became the star of the city and the embodiment of modern Shanghai. In the first episode, Bao was the victim of a car accident and, through several flashbacks, the viewer witnesses his rebirth as a millionaire and meets the numerous supporting characters in the series, more than twenty of them.

A Blossoms Shanghai Wong Kar-wai fans will find the usual elements of the Hong Kong director's cinema, such as complicated loves – Bao lives three different stories – and hotel rooms, settings for films such as Desiring to love either 2046. In fact, Bao lives in a suite at the luxurious Peace Hotel, which opened in 1956 and is still operating today.

Two years of waiting

Although the series is premiering now in Spain, it was shown in China in 2023 and was a huge success with the public, also reinforcing Shanghainese, a language still spoken by 14 million people but which has gradually disappeared from public life in favor of Mandarin. The fascination sparked by the series has led fans to visit some of the locations featured, such as the aforementioned Peace Hotel, the art-deco Cathay Theatre, and the popular Huanghe Street, the epicenter of the city's nightlife.

Blossoms Shanghai It is the return of Wong Kar-wai after almost a decade away from the front line (the last film he made is The Grandmaster, released in 2013). Known for his meticulousness and perfectionism, the director dedicated years to the series: filming began in September 2020 and ended in mid-2023 (the series premiered in December of that year). The shoot was so intense that some cast members joked that it would last a lifetime. Xin Zhilei, who plays Li Li, the owner of the luxury restaurant Grand Lisbon, explained that when it seemed like it was the last day of filming, it never was; just days after saying goodbye to the crew because they had already finished their work, the director called her to want to start shooting again.