Cover The café in Prada Rong Zhai’s Mi Shang (Photo: courtesy of Prada and Prada Rong Zhai)
The café in Prada Rong Zhai’s Mi Shang (Photo: courtesy of Prada and Prada Rong Zhai)
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A new film exhibition at Prada Rong Zhai brings together cinema, art and heritage in a way that feels as cinematic as a Wong Kar-wai film.
This month, the Disney, Hollywood and Studio Ghibli storyboard exhibition adds a new chapter to Prada Rong Zhai’s dynamic arts programme in Shanghai. With marble pillars, creaking wooden staircases and stained-glass windows glowing in the sun, the mansion could easily be mistaken for a scene from one of Wong’s films set in old Shanghai. It is, therefore, fitting that its latest showcase, A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema, celebrates the artistry behind filmmaking itself.
Running until February 1, 2026, the exhibition features over 800 copies of storyboards and renderings by Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Hollywood, Studio Ghibli and Chinese auteurs, spanning from the late 1920s to 2024. The show examines the visual language that precedes film production through sketches, notes and photographs: from the imagined world of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) to the experiments capturing Nemo’s facial expressions in Finding Nemo (2003), and the early design iterations of the desert landscapes in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021).
Curated by Melissa Harris, the exhibition was first presented at the Prada Osservatorio in Milan before making its current stop in Shanghai.
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‘A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema’, shown in Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai (Tatler: image courtesy of Prada Rong Zhai and Prada)
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Prada’s focus on film is no coincidence. Through Fondazione Prada, the brand has supported numerous cinematic initiatives, such as a €1.5 million (about HK$14 million) annual fund for independent and arthouse productions, and the operation of Cinema Godard in Milan, which hosts screenings and public discussions with leading filmmakers.
Co-chief executive and co-creative director Miuccia Prada has also cultivated close relationships with renowned directors, from Wes Anderson—who designed Fondazione Prada’s Bar Luce café—to Baz Luhrmann, who collaborated with Prada on the 2022 Elvis film costumes. Most recently, Prada joined forces with Wong Kar-wai to open Mi Shang, a restaurant housed within Rong Zhai that debuted in March 2025.
Mi Shang reflects the moody, romantic aesthetic of Wong’s films In the Mood for Love (2000) and Happy Together (1997), blurring the boundaries between fashion, design and cinematic storytelling. The immersive interior draws diners into a dreamlike world, echoing the sensual nostalgia that defines Wong’s visual language. As visitors move upward through the mansion, the space evokes a surreal ascent “up the rabbit hole”, revealing layer upon layer of old Shanghai’s grandeur.
Above Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai (Photo: courtesy of Prada and Prada Rong Zhai)
Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai (Photo: courtesy of Prada and Prada Rong Zhai)
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Originally built in 1908 by a German-Jewish owner—whose Star of David floor tiles still grace the entrance hall—the mansion was later purchased in 1918 by Chinese industrialist Rong Zongjing (1873–1938), popularly known as the ‘Flour and Textile King of China’. Over the following decade, Rong expanded it into one of old Shanghai’s most opulent homes, hosting extravagant banquets and open-air performances in the garden.
Prada Rong Zhai has preserved many of these architectural details, from its ornately carved marble pillars to the hidden safe concealed behind the wall. Visitors can explore the ballroom, dining room, the lady of the house’s bedroom and even the garden where the Rongs once entertained dignitaries, including members of the League of Nations’ Investigative Group in 1932.
The study at Prada Rong Zhai (Photo: courtesy of Prada and Prada Rong Zhai)
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Adjacent to the café lies a more intimate chamber featuring a historic fireplace—now reimagined as a library dedicated to art, cinema and literature.
Following Rong’s wartime exile, the mansion lived multiple lives: a political office, a rental under Rupert Murdoch’s tenure, and finally, after a meticulous six-year restoration, a new chapter under Prada’s care. Every marble curve and stained-glass bloom has been lovingly honoured, allowing the heritage site to bloom once more as Shanghai’s most elegant intersection of art, fashion and history.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
