A corrupt local official, Xi Men Qing, who lusts after women and money, pursues his brother's young wife, Lee Ping Er. Ping finds Men attractive, and under her drunken husband's nose, she and Men work their way through the illustrations of a pillow book, the "Golden Lotus." Men pursues the same feat with his fourth concubine, Pan Jing Lien, who lives in the compound next to Ping. Jing's jealousy compounds a tale of humiliation, childbirth, death, and depravity. Does karma or enlightenment await anyone?
Production
Lavish Qing-era sets that contrast beautifully with the rot inside.
Direction
Li Han-Hsiang's final film—cynical, unflinching, deeply personal.
Director
Li Han-Hsiang
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Adapted from Jin Ping Mei, one of China's Four Great Classical Novels—banned for centuries as pornography, celebrated as social satire.
Director Li Han-Hsiang died shortly after completing this, his third adaptation of the same novel across three decades.
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