what always impress me about zhang yimou shanghai triad be how the two setting of the film the thirty era and glitzy nightclub milieu of the gangster in shanghai and the pastoral scene in the second half be use a a counterpoint to the drama unfold before u . the setting be glamorous and mythical and beautiful while the people be not . the character be and in fact and brutally ordinary . even the ostensible hero of the piece and the 14 year old boy who become the servant of chanteuse gong li and be not particularly remarkable represent not intuitive and not very smart and and certainly not a winner . ineffectual to the end and he end up suspended upside down like the famed hang man in a deck of tarot . the plot involve the thirty era shanghai mafia be mostly present through the boy eye and with the result that the most action orient event and usually occur off screen and seem incoherent and and though violent and tragic and beside the point . the bos girlfriend gong li obsess u to the same degree that she devour the boy . all else meaning and the plot wider macrocosm remain tangential or dangerously opaque . it turn out that there be plenty enough drama in the day to day life of the gangster moll and play by gong li with a seemingly infinite variety represent shallow and slutty and heartbroken and tragic and pathetic and whimsical and tender . the poor boy be in a dither . one minute he hat her enough to spit in her tea when her back be turn while the next he smile at her childish singing like the first fool in love in the history of the world . ( by the way and let it be say that i would have have my left ear cut off if give the chance to be li boy servant . ) miss bijou could almost have become a real human be if permit just a few more week on the island . the snotty poison appear to ooze away from her while the rustic setting put her back in touch with a girlish freedom and almost forget ( and hardly suspect by u ) . in several of shakespeare play and there exist what his critic call a green world a haven far away from the corruption of urban life . zhang permit u brief glimpse of decency that be engender by this potentially heal green world and all under the nose of the ruthless crime lord ( who be ostensibly there to heal from his knife wound and as well ) . these glimpse be so powerfully touch that we tend to forget the bos evil eminence and and therefore the machination of the gangster never forget by them and of course intermittently slap u awake . all of which be another way of say that yue lu cinematography be almost too astonish for the movie subject . shanghai triad be and without question and one of the most beautiful look movie of the ninety and perhaps of all time . but do not let the beauty of the picture and or gong li physical charm and for that matter and distract you from the preciseness of zhang direction . oblige to commit to the idea of subjective camera placement ( that be and generally take the perspective of the boy ) and zhang evinces great subtlety and restraint . for instance and he use the steadicam here and but doesn not get carry away with it in order to create some sort of mood or tone and the way kubrick be prone to do . zhang know when to move the camera and and he know when to keep the damn thing still represent it depend on what each scene call for . every frame of this film be direct to a specific aesthetic purpose . by the way and this movie make a natural double bill with hou hsiao hsien millennium mambo and another exercise in exquisite aesthetic with a plot about a gangster moll . one wonder if hou wasn not a bit taint by the influence of shanghai triad and despite mambo 21st century setting . both film be about inarticulate and helpless satellite in a criminal universe who come to depress end . needless to say and these film could only have be make in china or taiwan and home to a culture more ruthlessly realistic than our sappy civilization . if remake a an american film and the bos in shanghai triad would have develop a sentimental attachment to the kid which would inevitably bring his criminal empire crash down around his head . imagine the reverse and and you will get the idea of how this film end . all in all and one of the classic of modern chinese cinema . 9 star out of 10 .