Colour Blossoms
2004 film directed by Yonfan
Colour Blossoms (Chinese: 桃色; Jyutping: Toh sik) is a 2004 Hong Kong art film written and directed by Yonfan, and the third in an informal trilogy of films inspired by Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion. The original Chinese title of Colour Blossoms literally translates as "Peach Colour", a euphemism for sexual desire, one of the central themes in the film.
Production
Yonfan began writing the script for Colour Blossoms in Venice, following the screening of his previous film, Breaking the Willow, at the Venice Film Festival. He had all three lead actresses in mind from the outset, in particular longtime friend Teresa Cheung for the part of Meili. Despite being a Hong Kong production, the cast and crew of the film came from a number of Asian countries, with actors from Japan (Matsuzaka and Yokouchi) and Korea (Harisu), and a filmmaking crew from mainland China, led by cinematographer Wang Yu. For the film's score Yonfan travelled personally to India to find a local composer, eventually hiring the talents of Surender Sodhi, a veteran of the Indian film industry.
Although Colour Blossoms had initially been planned as a low budget production, the actual cost ran to HK$10 million. It was largely funded by Yonfan himself, but financing problems resulted in an extended filming period of 13 months. The film had difficulty attracting potential investors due to its risqué subject matter, and a number of local actors had also been dissuaded from participating by their agents.
Main cast
Teresa Cheung as Meili.
“Colour Blossoms” enters the record as 2004 film directed by Yonfan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Colour, Blossoms and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Colour Blossoms” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Colour, Blossoms and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4388693. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Colour Blossoms”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Colour Blossoms primary sources, Colour Blossoms archive and Colour research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Colour Blossoms”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Colour Blossoms” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.