The Wong Kar-wai-ness is there, but the poetry’s almost lost. However. Blossoms Shanghai is the best series I’ve seen in 2025 – IF evaluated aside from its director.

Originally released in China on December 27, 2023, Wong Kar-wai’s new (and first) series made its North American debut on Criterion Channel on November 24, 2025 – with the first 3 episodes already available and the 4th one scheduled to be released on December 1st.

The plot revolves around Mr. Ah Bao (Hu Ge) who, finding a mentor, Uncle Ye (You Benchang) goes from rags to riches through entrepreneurship and stock market investments, bringing into the audience’s attention the dazzling passions of 90s Shanghai and the history of the time’s Stock Exchange in the area.

After a prominent restaurant, The Golden Phoenix’s owner disappears and an important stock called 414 collapses, Mr. Bao gets hit by a car and goes missing in action for a month recovering his health in safety. However, as soon as Mr. Bao’s ready to re-enter society, he is chased down by all the entrepreneurs and investors on Huanghe Road to fulfill their own business agendas – especially Madam Li Li (Xin Zhilei), the owner of The Grand Lisbon – a restaurant that rises in the place of The Golden Phoenix. Mr. Bao now needs to navigate the stock market, his relationships and business partners to stay afloat while letting the audience discover Huanghe Road’s secrets.

In a short intro video for Criterion Channel, Wong Kar-wai opens up how having been born in Shanghai but mostly growing up in Hong Kong, Wong sees Hong Kong and Shanghai as twins that mirror each other. If in the past the director has filmed Hong Kong to capture Shanghai, in Blossoms Shanghai, he “saw traces of Hong Kong, though filming in Shanghai.” And, this Shanghai comes alive in all its beauty of busy streets and neon lights in the night – creating an addictive atmosphere that the audience members would probably struggle hard not to be captivated by!

In the middle of city lights and complicated character relationships, the audience recognizes the familiar Wong Kar-wai “suspending time” technique – highlighting the high emotional stakes by creating a sort of stuttering motion blur effect – making certain scenes in this series feel like a dream – the exact state the characters of the TV series feel to be in.

Yet, even with the familiarity and dreaminess, Blossoms Shanghai feels more structured and less poetic than Wong Kar-wai’s previous works. It is a great series with catchy visuals and an interesting plot – which was adapted from a 2013 novel called Blossoms by Jin Yucheng – but it is not a Wong Kar-wai series. Not the way it feels. There’s too much talking, too much fast movement, too much action, and not enough mysteriousness for this TV series to feel like a Wong Kar-wai masterpiece, as some of his works are like Chungking Express (1994); In the Mood For Love (2000); or The Grandmaster (2013).

Even so, it’s a nicely executed TV series that doesn’t make cliffhangers cliche and has the potential of keeping the audience hooked without overwhelming them with cheap dialogue and artless cinematography. In fact, even if commercial for a Wong Kar-wai film, if we separate the film from the director, we’ll see that Blossoms Shanghai is actually one of the least commercial series out there in 2025. And, if the remaining 27 series deliver the same energy while letting the plot bloom, Blossoms Shanghai might be named one of the artsy-est ones also!