Shanghai Triad (Chinese with English Subtitle)

An extravagantly composed gangster tale set in 1930's Shanghai where glamorous high society and a dark, gritty, and brutal underworld co-exist and often collide. The tragic story of a wide-eyed boy's experience working as attendant to a beautiful but bratty, demanding lounge singer who happens to be the main mistress of a shrewd, vicious, and rightfully paranoid crime boss. As one should expect from director Zhang Yimou's excellent multi-layered storytelling- deadly secrets reveal that all is not what it seems. Lush photography, nostalgic music, stunning sets, and superb performances, most notably Gong Li's, make this an extraordinary, memorable work of 1990's cinema, and one of my favourites. Compare with the director's later martial arts spectacles Hero (2002), House Of Flying Daggers (2004), Curse Of The Golden Flower (2006), and more recently, Shadow (2018) -all highly recommended- and this is easily recognizable with his unique brand of politics and duplicity themed story driven films, and fits in nicely as a precursor. This Film Movement / Studio Canal Blu ray is finely restored and looks great, and includes an comprehensive video essay examination of the film with insight into director Zhang Yimou and Gong Li's work and interpretations of the film, and a well written booklet. Highly recommended. Also recommended: Ang Lee's under appreciated thriller Lust/Caution (2007), and Bertolucci's epic The Last Emperor (1987).

Shanghai Triad is another beautiful and unhurried film from Zhang Yimou. The amazing collaborative streak between Yimou and the remarkable Gong Li (in modern film, there are two actresses who never fail - Meryl Streep and Gong Li) once again succeeds with this take on the relationship between a nightclub singer/gangster's mistress and her new servant over a seven day period. Like most of his work, it is the bittersweet relationships between flawed characters and the breathtaking visuals that make this film something to savor. There are unexpected smiles preceding heartbreaking sadness and brilliant scenes forming the backdrop for agonizing tragedies. To watch his art is to pay an emotional price. Furthermore, his movies often linger long after the credits roll. Yimou has a gift for gradually pulling you into the lives of the characters. What starts with simple curiosity becomes fascination and finally morphs into commitment. Before you realize it, you find yourself wanting more time with the characters, more time to see the beauty of China, more time to cherish the gorgeous world Yimou has crafted. Shanghai Triad is not his finest work, but it is still worth escaping into.

First of all, the quality of the Blue-Ray disk and playback of the movie are excellent. If you're familiar with Zhang Yimou's early work, this film will seem familiar ... themes of the individual struggling against a cruel and hierarchical system, a vicious character who is later revealed to be more deeply-layered and conflicted. This is the kind of story that sits in your head for days afterwards. Zhang is similar to Kubrick in that his films are beautifully shot and rich with emotion and color and life. Leading lady Gong Li is at her best, here, imperious and petty and heartbreaking all at once. Stellar in every regard.

The movie itself was good. The DVD quality felt like a copy of a copy. Almost as bad as a stationary camcorder copy. In fast scenes, the picture quality got blurry.

The blu ray edition is very good. A definite improvement over the DVD. The way this film was shot does not have the color and sharpness of other high definition movies, but this is the best version of Shanghai Triad you will find. Definitely worth getting. There is only one typo I noticed on the subtitles. Other than that, the subtitles seemed consistent with the American DVD version. Overall, I'm very happy to have this in my collection.

I'm not so sure that SHANGHAI TRIAD is Zhang Yimou's best movie, I personally prefer the drama HAPPY TIMES. But, what is certain, is that Gong Li gave in this movie one of her most luminous interpretations. The musical score and the singing acts of SHANGHAI TRIAD are a sufficient reason to keep the movie in one's library. Beware, SHANGHAI TRIAD is not your regular action film. The scenes that would have been the highlight of an european or an american movie such as the attack of the Tang headquarter or the siege of the island where the boss of the Tang family have retired, are deliberately absent of the movie or just evoked by shadows. So let's enjoy the always interesting descriptions of the Chinese psychology that reach their highest point in the last scenes of SHANGHAI TRIAD when the gang boss Tang rubs out for a while his eternal smile and condemns the traitors to an inhuman death. Absolutely chilling since the execution of the sentence, that concerns two of the main characters of the film, will not be shown to us.

I love the movie! Unfortunately the one I have bought is filmed in Chinese and the subtitles are in Thai.

good performance by Gong Li. enjoyed the plot and scenery of the movie though the plot moves a little slow in places. If you are a Gong Li fan, this may be a good movie for you to pick up.

Satisfait.L

I am a great fan of Zhang Yimou, the great Chinese film director, who, for those not into foreign or art house cinema, might know best as the director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic games. Starting with Red Sorghum,then Jou Dou, Zhang Yimou has cinematically potrayed life in modern China, from the end of the Ming Dunasty and feudalsim, through war and revolution,and to current times.He is also the man who discovered Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi, two actresses who starred in many of his films. Zhang Yimou's "Raise the Red Lantern" was nominated for a Foreign Language Film oscar, but the Chinese Communist government of the day, attempted to decline the nomination, and refused to allow Zhang to attend the Hollywood ceremony. Things have gone better for him since then. Shanghai Triad is set in the gangster ridden City of Shanghai during the pre-World War Two Era. A small country boy is sent by his parents to work for rich relatives in the City, the rich relatives being the heads of a leading Gangster Triad in Shanghai. The boy is made to work for the Gangster Chiefs mistress, a very spoiled singer-actress who performs in the Triads nightclubs, and who has less talent than vanity. The story flows to its horrific conclusion, set on an off-shore island, where the gang has moved temporarily to avoid gang warfare in the City. The ending of the film is absolutely horrific. Chilling. Murder, even of those near and dear, the guilty and the innocent,is all in a days work. What sets this film apart is the performance of Gong Li, usually excellent, but here superb. And the visuals. The photography in all of Zhang Yimou's films is good, in Shanghai Triad it is superlative, stunning. The film's visual excellence won many prizes, including an oscar nomination in the cinematography category, not something that is handed out by Hollywood to art house films in a foreign language. Enjoy Shanghai Triad.And if you want to see the work of a brilliant filmmaker..avail yourself of the opportunity to watch as many Zhang Yimou films as you can. To me,and I got to alot of films, I would say Zhang Yimou is the greatest film director working on earth today.

After seeing the film on tv a few years ago, i have been searching for it on DVD to no avail, Thankfully I spotted it on Amazon & was amazed to find it available. The film is very good & the story is played out well. The Film is in English subtitles which is fine & easy to get used to.

I had the movie in VHS. With this dvd, I feel like upgrading from DOS to Windows. Cheers...

I think they miss the mark here a little. they tried to do the roaring twenty’s and it failed. this was way too much singing for me and no real Gangster thrown in. it came way way too late. it just seem to be all about her. which was not bad but too much.