Shanghai Triad
1995; directed by Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou's critically-acclaimed look at organized crime in 1930's China is certainly a stunning film to look at. But once everything is stripped down, there really doesn't seem to be much under its' shiny exterior, which makes sitting through this art-house favorite almost like a chore at times. Yes, certainly, there are "deep" comments on themes like greed and love, and the acting and technical aspects of the movie are well-done. But really, we've all seen this sort of thing done many times before -- it's just that this time, it's wrapped up in a lovely package.

The bow on that package would be Zhang's long-time muse Gong Li, who plays Siu, a nightclub singer who is the kept woman of Shanghai's top gang boss, Tang (Lee Biu-Tin). Tang hires Shui (Wang Xiao-Xiao), the nephew of one of his "associates", to be Siu's servant. Siu treats Shui horribly, but after an attack on Tang forces them to flee to a remote island, the two begin to bond.

I will have to admit that a big reason that I didn't get into Shanghai Triad as much as others were the musical sequences. While this is not a musical in the true sense of the genre, there's certainly a good deal of screen time given to Gong Li's singing. Sure, she's a good enough songstress, but I had to question as to why we had to have several musical numbers presented, including the same song in full twice. Yes, I get the filmic technique of expressing story elements via song, but a little of that goes a long way, and in my humble opinion Zhang doesn't know when to say when. The movie certainly could have used a bit of editing to make the story flow more dynamically, and a prime target for the scissors are the song-and-dance scenes.

Also, and this is probably more of a personal annoyance due to my disdain of most child actors, but I found Shui to be totally unlikable. I know he's supposed to be an uneducated country boy, but are you seriously telling me that he doesn't know what the color red is? Even though Siu is supposed to be the defacto heel of the movie, I kept rooting for her to give Shui another smack to the head everytime he gave yet another dumbfounded look into the camera.

At any rate, though I'm sure I'm pretty damn far from Shanghai Triad's intended audience, I'd like to think that even I -- someone that defends Wong Jing's work on a semi-regular basis -- can appreciate a good art-house picture if it's done well. But in the end, even if I did appreciate the cinematography and editing, which was simply gorgeous, there was little else presented here to elevate Shanghai Triad above the realm of the average. If you're like me and prefer big explosions and deep wounds to big musical numbers and deep meditations on life as the mainstay of your cinematic intake, then perhaps Shanghai Triad is best left for a rainy day or for a time when you want to try and impress a lady with how "arty" you are.

RATING: 5