Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung portrays a civil servant who spends many hours in the British-run brothels of late 19th-century Shanghai. Through his eyes, we see social life in houses sealed off from the outside world. The prostitutes find protectors there, marriages are made, business is done and the opium pipe goes around. Hou Hsiao-hsien subtly paints the prostitutes’ emotions without many words, emphasizing their isolation through a precise mise-en-scène.