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

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A still from period drama “Blossoms Shanghai”, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s long-awaited first television series. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Lily Zi

Published: 7:45am, 25 Dec 2023Updated: 9:52am, 31 Dec 2023

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.