Shanghai Triad

To pacify Chinese authorities after politically-charged drama To Live (1994), filmmaker Zhang Yimou decided to pivot to the gangster genre with Shanghai Triad. At first glance, it’s a standard period drama introducing the titular crime organization. Through the eyes of newly initiated Tang Shuisheng, Yimou paints a familiar portrait of violence underlying the city, symbolized by Shuisheng’s boss, also a Tang, and his glamorous mistress Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li). However, as the boy gets to learn the ropes, the film unfolds through the choices their characters negotiate, namely the trade-offs they have to make to make it big or to be at peace. Played out marvelously in Gong Li’s performance, Shanghai Triad contemplates the tightrope that people balance on for their own freedom.

Shanghai, China, 1930. When young Shuisheng arrives from the countryside, his uncle Liushu puts him at the service of Bijou, the mistress of Laoda, supreme boss of the Tang Triad, constantly threatened by his enemies, both those he knows and those lurking in the shadows.