Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Lee Eisenberg It was around the time that Zhang Yimou's "Yáo a yáo, yáo dào wàipó qiáo" ("Shanghai Triad" in English) came out that he was really becoming a notable director internationally, and this movie justifiably adds to that. The movie focuses on a Tang Shuisheng (Wang Xiaoxiao), a boy who goes to Shanghai in the 1930s to work for his relative, who is also a major crime boss. Shuisheng is given the duty of attending to the boss's mistress Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li). She is a country person like Shuisheng is, although she calls him a country bumpkin. But over the course of the movie, it becomes clear to Shuisheng that Jinbao that things are not as calm as they look amongst the numerous characters.A lot is usually made about the movie's cinematography -- which received an Academy Award nomination -- and about Gong Li's glamorous role. While these two are significant, I think that the more significant issue is the role that 1930s Shanghai plays. No doubt the movie is implying that the conditions back then led to the communist revolution. But probably the main thing is how Shuisheng and Jinbao come to understand the falsity of the world that they inhabit.I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it's still worth seeing. It seems like Zhang's movies in the last ten years were more and more like epics, more exaggerated each time.

Rupert17 Shanghai Triad never gains momentum from a slow start and languid pacing until it eventually fizzles out.Gong Li looks superb and director Zhang Yimou's attention to detail and stylistic conceits never fail to impress. But the plot is overly simplistic and the characters never rise above a narrative bogged down with one dimensional characters and clichéd situations. You get the feeling Yimou was ready for something different in his career and Gong Li had played one too many parts under his direction.That said, it is entertaining without ever attaining the high standards of previous collaborations.

nikhil7179 Shanghai Triad has an interesting MO. It is really a socio-historical commentary masquerading as a coming of age story masquerading as a Gangster Film.Yimou makes bold storytelling choices - using the servant boy of a gang lord's mistress as the unlikely protagonist - shifting the setting of the film suddenly from bustling urban Shanghai to the peaceful Chinese Countryside.The risk taking pays off - it is what separates Triad from generic Hollywood tripe.Rather than some sort of high-handed morality play or costume melodrama, Yimou uses the story to illustrate the corruption of innocence, shifting loyalties and the endless struggle for power and dominance.Yimou purposely subverts our expectations of the genre picture by denying any form of release - any false catharsis/closure.The protagonist/viewer can only watch helplessly from the sidelines as the cycle of violence and exploitation continues.This device will prove undoubtedly frustrating to a Hollywood Audience and I commend him for it.

trpdean This is a fine movie - wonderfully acted, beautifully shot, quite simple. Without being heavy-handed, one comes to sense the presence of real evil that tempts and corrupts and destroys. It's a little slow at times because the story is so simple - yet the slowness and simplicity does allow the messages of the movie to hit home. Something else I like is that the protagonist boy is not made to be cute or winning - he just is who he is - largely an observer but sometimes acting with generosity and sometimes with contempt. Much has been said by others about the beautiful cinematography and that's certainly true - but I'm also struck by the amazing work of those who constructed or chose the sets, costumes, background characters - they were quite memorable. What a star in Gong Li, and what a director!I don't agree with those who contrast this with American movies - surely we feel the same evil in watching either version of Scarface or The Petrified Forest or The Road to Perdition. In fact, I would say this movie is most like The Road to Perdition of any I've seen - not in its story particularly but in its tone, its simplicity, its contrasts of character, its cinematography. This is also a good movie for those who say they don't like foreign movies - you'll like this one.