Ah Bao, for the past few episodes of Blossoms Shanghai, treads dangerously mixing business with romance. He remembers his first love Betty while falling out with two loves, Ling Zi (Ma Yili) and Miss Wang (Tang Yan). These episodes show flashbacks of a happenstance meeting that started because of him and Tao Tao (Chen Long). That trip eventually gets Ah Bao into befriending Ling Zi and within the circles of businessmen in Japan. Back in the 1990s, Uncle Ye (You Benchang) grills him about whether or not he has enough capital assets. Uncle Ye is also still seeing both Miss Wang and surprise, the latter’s archenemy Mei Ping (Wang Ju). Miss Wong, an almost indestructible figure, finds friendship and happiness despite new circumstances.

Blossoms Shanghai, from director and producer Wong Kar Wai, has him trying new things . For instance, there’s the musical number as Mr. Wei (Ryan Zheng) tries to get Miss Wong’s business partnership. These block of episodes have the pendulum swinging at the exact opposite with dry and mundane office meetings. Mr. Bao is not on Mei Ping’s invite list because he didn’t want to come to her dinner events? Or conversations between Ah Bao and Uncle Ye about capital, the kind of subject matter that makes me dissociate? This is when it almost loses me and then Li Li (Xin Zhilei) returns and so do I. Ah Bao also reunites with Betty in Hong Kong, finding that the latter was never that rich to start.

Business matters, integral to Blossoms Shanghai, is not everyone’s idea of riveting subject matter, and I include myself in that. But thankfully, and despite of itself, Wong occasionally finds humanity within Shanghai’s worlds. And strangely enough, he does that through a character that I used to be lukewarm on – Miss Wang. Asian media is full of characters like her, overtly perky, a little bit of a pick me with her loyal nature. Again, somehow, her downward spiral and her clawing back to the top endears me to her – she’s finally clicking now. I can read a lot into her fighting her way back, working class style, as representative of Chinese ideals. There’s something fresh about her in a way that reflects China’s rough reentry into the world stage.

Blossoms Shanghai is interesting when it touches on big ideas as well as smaller ones, national and personal, etc. Speaking of the personal angle, yes the show makes Ah Bao sympathetic despite his dalliances with different women. And because family members act similarly, Uncle Ye, again, juggles meetings with him, Miss Wang, and Mei Ping. It’s been difficult writing about Mei Ping because she’s been popping in since maybe episode five, four the earliest. A series like any with its share of supporting characters, it’s hard for Mei Ping to stick out within Shanghai’s world. I have my suspicions on the way Wong frames her as well as other characters with a similar type of body and face. A part of me wonders if Wong Kar Wai dislikes big people, but I’ll let that minor annoyance aside.

Blossoms Shanghai‘s new episodes are available to stream on the Criterion Channel.