Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai TV show: what to expect, how true it stays to the novel it’s based on – and how fans are reacting

The first television series by Wong Kar-wai, director of films like In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express, Blossoms Shanghai, launches on December 27
The 30-episode period drama set in Shanghai has been six years in the making – and will be released twice: once in Putonghua and once in Shanghainese

TV shows and streaming video

Lily Zi

Published: 7:45am, 25 Dec 2023

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Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai’s first television series, Blossoms Shanghai, will begin airing on December 27.

The 30-episode period drama – which has been six years in the making – is adapted from a 2012 novel of the same name by Jin Yucheng, which won the 9th Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2015 and is written in Shanghainese.

Set in Shanghai in the 1990s, the romantic drama revolves around a young man, Abao (played by Hu Ge), who rises from humble beginnings to become a successful entrepreneur in the space of 10 years.

Along the way, he receives help from allies such as Ling Zi (Ma Yili), Miss Wang (Tiffany Tang), and Uncle Ye (You Benchang) and faces off against rivals such as Li Li (Xin Zhilei) in his quest to expand his business empire.

A still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Jin wrote Blossoms Shanghai in the hope it would help dispel stereotypes about Shanghai and help readers understand its culture. Blossoms Shanghai will be aired in two versions: one in Shanghainese on Tencent’s WeTV and one dubbed into Putonghua, the official language of China, on the CCTV 8 network.

Staying true to the novel’s distinctive local flavour, the television series’ leads were all born and raised in Shanghai and a lot of the dialogue is in Shanghainese. Much effort was also made to recreate the look and feel of 1990s Shanghai.

The series is adapted from the 2012 novel “Blossoms Shanghai” by Jin Yucheng (above).

In August 2020, the television crew posted a newspaper notice seeking everyday household objects from the period 1976 to 1995, along with stories behind them.

According to the crew’s official Weibo account, the search received a nationwide response and they were sent everything from newspapers to cigarette lighters to sewing machines – even a car.

Some of these items had interesting family histories, which were shared on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platform.

Hu Ge in a still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films

In typical Wong Kar-wai style, the show’s filming took three years to complete; the director is well known for being very particular about each and every shot, often requiring actors to perform a scene 10 or more times. He likewise spent five years filming his 2004 film 2046 and three years on 2013 movie The Grandmaster.

At a recent promotional event, when the cast was asked to name a reason people ought to watch the series, actress Ma said: “I hope you can see our growth in this drama, and you can see the changes over time on our faces.”

Three trailers for Blossoms Shanghai have been released teasing the mysterious relationships between Abao and the three main female characters.

Hu Ge has used three different metaphors – “the sky and the sea”, “the second hand and minute hand” on a watch, and “Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie” from the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West – to describe his character’s relationships with Li Li, Miss Wang and Ling Zi.

Each trailer teases a different part of the series: the first focuses on Abao before his success, while the second depicts “Mr Bao” as an influential businessman. In the final trailer, Wong offfers a broader look at the era of the drama.

He explained: “In addition to Abao’s personal struggle, his transformation is also inseparable from his era. We hope this trailer can show the vitality, passion, joy, and sorrow of countless people like Abao during that time period.”

Hu Ge as Abao in a still from “Blossoms Shanghai”. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Many internet users have said they have high expectations of Blossoms Shanghai. One fan posting on YouTube-like Chinese video platform Bilibili expressed their excitement that a show like this “is finally on the air”.

Another post reads: “I want to watch the Shanghainese version, although I don’t understand it. I really like the local features.”