Shanghai Triad

Shanghai Triad is a 1995 film directed by Yimou Zhang. The film is set in Shanghai, China at some point in the 1930s. The film is powerful in both visual aspects as well as characterization aspects, presenting well-defined and multi-dimensional characters throughout. One exception to this, however, is the protagonist, Tang Shuisheng. From his country origins, one would have expected him to be more innocent and unassuming, or far more gung-ho about what is going on with him. However, he seems to display something close to a callous indifference through certain parts of the film, lacking a particularly strong reaction about it. While this might come off as an annoyance in other films, it works well here to illustrate the other characters and allows the audience to fully absorb them.

Shuisheng is sent to Shanghai to work with a crime family; he is assigned the task of caring for the boss's mistress, Jinbao. His uncle Liu assists him in becoming acclimated to the lifestyle; the households displayed in Shanghai and the general feel of this area is one of immense emptiness -- though the homes are beautifully decorated and styled, one nonetheless draws from them a hollow feeling. These aren't well-lived in homes with smiling children -- they are the homes of vicious mob bosses, and their feel implies this in a carefully underhanded way.

Jinbao is beautiful, herself, but also displays her own callous indifference and viciousness -- she insults Shuisheng and his country heritage, though it is later revealed that Jinbao herself has rural origins. The contrast between the city life and rural life is illustrated sharply when the mob flees to a place in the country to escape their rivals -- gone are the immense mansions and nightclubs, replaced with a quiet, natural setting. The city characters are terribly out of place, and they bring to this peaceful rural setting their violence and hatred.

The film's theme revolves around crime, and heavily implies that only bad things can come from it. Most aspects of Jinbao's life are controlled by the crime family, and she has lost most of what was probably a good nature as a result of her involvement with Tang and the crime family. Although Shuisheng is not presented as an innocent in the beginning of the film, one can surmise from the brutal ending that his opinion of crime families and their lifestyles has soured immensely. Though this theme is not as deep or intellectual as much of Zhang's other work thanks to political pressures, there is certainly a valuable underlying message here about the mob and its affect on the people caught up in it.