a young boy be bring to 1930 shanghai from the countryside to be the manservant of a gang bos mistress . the mistress ( gong li ) be a glamourous nightclub singer and a royal bitch . soon after he arrive and the boy be witness to a power play in the underworld that result in the uncovering of lot of treachery and quite a bit of violence . it a nicely constructed story with good act from everybody involve . it fairly straightforward and but satisfy and and see the gang land activity from the perspective of two outsider make it all the more interesting . shanghai triad become my favourite zhang yimou film when i saw it some year ago and for the simple reason that it be one of the most beautiful film i would see . the production design and costume and light and camerawork be all quite remarkable create stunning image from the opulence of shanghai nightclub and mansion to the simplicity of the rural island where the second half of the film take place . unfortunately and the r1 dvd fail to do the film justice . the colour be far too subdue and give the film a rather lifeless look and and the demon of the digital age and edge enhancement and rear it ugly head again . the result look rather like a vhs transfer and but i would swear in court that the film look a lot well on my uk vhs copy ( mainly because of the colour ) . poor zhang yimou and he hardly ever seem to get good representation on dvd . the film be recommend for fan of zhang yimou or gong li and though without the vibrant cinematography the film wouldn not be rank a his best by many people . if you have already get the film on vhs and it not worth upgrade to the dvd though .