SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pluskylang Great Film overall

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Martin Teller A country lad in brought to Shanghai to be a servant to a gangster's moll. There's not a whole lot to say about this movie, it's pretty standard stuff about evil corrupting and destroying everything it touches, et cetera. Li Gong's performance is good as always, and the sumptuous photography is a delight to behold, although the color palette appears muted on the DVD. The plot and Li's character take some interesting turns in the third act, but it's not quite enough up for the mundane build-up. Although it's not one of Zhang's best, especially from this period, it's perfectly watchable and sticks with you for a bit.

jandesimpson SPOILER insofar as final scene is mentioned.Once upon a time there was an exciting young director from China, Zhang Yimou, who dazzled us with lush colourful melodramas ("Ju Dou" and "Raise the Red Lantern"), glorious "soap", charting family travails throughout turbulent modern history ("To Live") and a type of social realism where you could almost smell the difference between countryside and city ("The Story of Qui Ju" and "Not One Less"). What became of him? He seems to have fallen victim to the seduction of the big budget martial arts genre ("Hero" and "Curse of the Golden Flower"). I could not but lament this on returning recently to one of the lesser known but nevertheless rewarding works of his earlier period, "Shanghai Triad". What he once did was often quite remarkable. Although on the surface the plot reads just like another gangster movie with feuding gangs fighting for supremacy in drug ridden 1930's Shanghai, what raises it to a higher level is that we observe and try to make sense of the nefarious goings-on through the eyes of a 14 year old boy. The opening shot just after the start of the credits is a closeup of Shuisheng who has just arrived in the city with his uncle to be placed as the servant to the mistress of their Tang relative who is "Boss" of the most powerful gangster clan around. From then on the boy is seldom away from the action which includes all sorts of murderous deeds. It's quite plain that he is just as bewildered as we are, a fact emphasised by the continual return to his closeup with those quizzical staring eyes. Much has been written about the brilliance of Gong Li's performance as Bijou, the "Boss's mistress, but for me this is the boy's film as the sense of audience identification with him is so complete. We even see his view of the world upside down in the final shots when he is trussed up and suspended from a pole as a punishment. The first half of the film set in the city moves at a furious pace, brilliant camera-work emphasising reds and the smoky atmosphere of the cabaret where Bijou performs. Thereafter the action moves to a remote river island where the main protagonists take refuge from those about to get them. Somehow this second half with its more leisurely tempo does not quite maintain the bravura of what has gone before, but who to complain after so much excitement. An imperfect work perhaps but one whose atmosphere is conveyed with superb visual imagination.

sddavis63 One certainly cannot criticize the performances in this movie. The stunning Gong Li was perfectly cast as girlfriend to Boss Tang, who was himself superbly portrayed by Baotian Li. I thought, however, that Wang Xiaoxiao stole the show with his performance as Shuisheng, the "third nephew of the boss's cousin" (or some such convoluted connection.) Shuisheng is a peasant boy whose suddenly brought to Shanghai by Boss Tang to serve as servant to Gong Li's character. From that position he has the chance to see this essentially gangster family in action, and it's interesting to watch the loyalty he begins to develop for his new mistress.Performances aside, however, I have to say that there wasn't much about the story that was particularly noteworthy. It appears that the mob is the mob, whether it's an American Mafia family or this Chinese gangster family. The movie does have Gong Li performing some nice song and dance numbers while looking absolutely beautiful, but that can only carry a largely mundane (by mob standards) story so far. Overall, I can't see myself going higher than 5/10 on this one.

George Parker In "Shanghai Triad", Yi-Mou Zhang trains his lens on a gangster's girlfriend and her young servant boy as the mob lurks in the background doing what mobs do. A character study which focuses on Li Gong's wonderful portrayal of a kept woman whose singing and beauty took her from peasant life to wealthy emptiness, there's little story to be found as the film moves serenely from cabaret song and dance numbers to pastoral scenic beauty. Those who appreciate the Chinese culture will enjoy this lyric and beautiful film the most. For many westerners, however, there will not enough of a story arc to make for a satisfying watch. (B)