SHANGHAI TRIAD Movie Review

Yao a Yao Yao Dao Waipo Qiao

In the corrupt, gangster-run Shanghai of the 1930s, a young rural boy named Shuisheng is brought to town by a gang boss to become the personal servant of the boss's mistress, Bijou (Gong Li). Told primarily though the progressively less innocent eyes of Shuisheng, Shanghai Triad begins as an explosion of color, music, and sensual decadence that dramatically presents the Chicago-style mob violence that permeates Bijou's world. An escalating gang war sends Shuisheng and his employers to a remote island hideout, where Shuisheng sees another side of the beautiful and mysterious Bijou, and where he also begins to understand the inevitable consequences awaiting those who either wield or live under absolute power. Though suppressed by Chinese authorities (natch), the haunting and emotionally complex Shanghai Triad is clearly director Zhang Yimou's effort at “breaking out” into a wider international market. As mistress and nightclub singer Bijou, Gong Li gets to do some flashy production numbers complete with singing, dancing, and Vegas-style costumes, yet Shanghai Triad is no mindless entertainment; it is, in fact, the relentlessly bleak, no-nonsense denouement that both assured the film's status as a highly personal vision and, ironically, may have sabotaged its boxoffice potential. Widely underrated, Shanghai Triad is a rich and universally relevant fable about the price of corruption. This was Gong's sixth and final film collaboration with Zhang—their personal and professional relationship concluded during its production.

NEXT STOP … Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Godfather

1995 (R) 108m/C FR CH Gong Li, Li Bao-Tian, Li Xuejian, Shun Chun Shusheng, Wang Xiaoxiao Cuihua, Jiang Baoying; D: Zhang Yimou; W: Bi Feiyu; C: Lu Yue; M: Zhang Guangtain. Nominations: Academy Awards ‘95: Best Cinematography; Golden Globe Awards ‘96: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV COL