Hsiao-hsien Hou	...	(Director)
Eileen Chang, T'ien-wen Chu, Bangqing Han	...	(Writer)
Shuan Fang	...	Jade
Michiko Hada	...	Crimson
Annie Shizuka Inoh	...	Golden Flower
Jack Kao	...	Luo
Carina Lau	...	Pearl
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Wang
Firebird Liu	...	Vagabond # 2 (as Xu-Hao Liu)
Rebecca Pan	...	Huang
Michelle Reis	...	Emerald
Vicky Wei	...	Jasmin
Pin Bing Lee	...	Cinematographer
An-an Hsu	...
Ping Bin Lee	...	Cinematographer

Summary: Shanghai, the 1880s, four elegant brothels (flower houses): each has an auntie (the madam), a courtesan in her prime, older servants, and maturing girls in training. The men gather around tables of food, playing drinking games. An opium pipe is at hand. The women live within dark-paneled walls. The atmosphere is stifling, as if Chekov was in China. The melancholy Wang is Crimson's patron; will he leave her for the younger Jasmin? Emerald schemes to buy her freedom, aided by Luo, a patron. Pearl, an aging flower, schools the willful Jade, who thinks she has a marriage agreement with young master Zhu. Is she dreaming? Women fade, or connive, or despair.