Shanghai Triad

Shanhai Triad is a 1995 Chinese film. This was directed by Zhang Yimou and stars Gong Li. The setting is in the 1930s in the criminal underworld of Shanghai. The main plot revolves a young boy named Shuisheng who has been chosen from his village to become the servant for Xiao Jingbao who is the current girlfriend of the main crime boss Tang. Xia Jinbao is the most beautiful woman around and often sings songs on stage at the coolest club in Shanghai.

Shuisheng's uncle is in charge of teaching the ropes of how things work in the city as opposed to what he is used to in his village. Shuisheng gets nervous alot and makes several mistakes throughout the movie such as dropping things and not moving fast enough or answering questions. Shuisheng hears noises one night and goes to see whats going on and sees several men fighting and and stabbing each other and then dragging the dead bodies inside to a bath area. Shuisheng follows the men to discover that his uncle is one of the men who got stabbed and is now dead.

This movie had some interesting scenes. The part where Shuisheng follows the blood trail to find his dead uncle is an intense scene. And at the end where we see everything upside down from Shuishengs point of view is a nice idea. Shanghai Triad did a good job of showing what life was like in Shanghai at the time. Im sure alot of murders and gangster type business happened very often and this film displayed that.

Tang notices that Shuisheng has the look of revenge in his eye and decides to escape the now dangerous Shanghai for a couple days and go hide in one of the tranquil villages so no one can attempt to kill him again. He already looks injured and holds his midsection and moves slowly.

Tang, Shuisheng, Xiao, and a few bodyguards go off to hide in a small village. Xaio meets a young girl who is stunningly beautiful. She asks her if she knows how to sing and they sing together for a moment. Xaio goes to the girls mother and asks if she can take her and raise her. The mother says no but then the guards who had been watching Xiao go and kill the womans mother and her fiance and take the girl.

Shuisheng sees two guys approach from a rival gang and listens to them discuss how they are going to try and kill Xaio. Shuisheng runs and tells Tang that there are men coming who want to kill Xaio. Tang then reveals that he knows that peoople are probably coming and that was his plan the whole time. He knew that Xaio was cheating on him and was gonna kill her himself. He also reveals that he never even got injured and had been faking it the entire time in order to fool his rivals. He then has Xaio killed along with the traitors.

The movie ends with Tang and the beautiful young girl on a boat heading back to Shanghai. Shuisheng is also there hanging upside down to teach him a lesson. So the little girl will most likely become Tangs new girlfriend and this cycle will go around and repeat itself until Tang is dead.