"Shanghai Triad" is the last of the great collaborations between director Zhang Yimou and actress Gong Li. They will not work together until 2006's "Curse of the Golden Flower", and that period drama is a negligible work. A school of thought has it that this film is the last and the least of the collaborations between the two (a point made by American critic Roger Ebert). However, watching this movie after catching the director's excellent "To Live" again, "Shanghai Triad" does not strike one as a lesser movie. In fact, technically and narratively, this film is even more ambitious that its earlier counterpart and could be said to be something like Zhang Yimou experimenting on the gangster genre. Only that the gangster genre does not yet exist in mainland Chinese cinema and the director has to breathe life to the genre by consulting Western models. Hence it is set in Shanghai in the 1930s, the most Western (and crime-ridden) of Chinese cities.<br /><br />"Shanghai Triad" has a lot of nuances which would be lost on non-native speakers. For some, this film is merely one of many mobster movies, a la Chinese style. But the Chinese title of the film hints on its primary theme: the corruption of the naive through (Triad) violence and bloodshed. The Chinese title alludes to a typical Chinese lullaby/rhyming song sung by children and which personifies itself in little Jiao, the young girl in the island. In a way, she is also young Jinbao, going back many years. The young country lad Shuisheng is similarly tainted. He cannot fight against the Chief of the Triad no matter how much he knows about his rottenness. At the film's end it is hinted that Shuisheng will probably end up as one of the Chief's men, probably as he bids a time to avenge the death of the Gong Li character.<br /><br />Technically, this film is astounding. The Shanghai nightclub scenes are splendidly realized and show that the Chinese technicians are more than a match for their Hollywood counterparts. This film rightly won a Technical Award at Cannes, and the cinematographer Lü Yue was nominated for an Oscar. Nonetheless, it is Zhang Yimou's helming which makes this film truly unique. He is able to show us the perspective from young boy Shuisheng, and make us share his fears amidst all the novelty of coming to a large city and then witnessing countless murders himself. The directing is fluid and seamless yet does not draw attention to itself. It is truly a marvelous technical achievement.<br /><br />The resplendent Gong Li is always watchable, and here her movement from a pampered cabaret singer to a sympathetic character entirely believable. Zhao Baotian is excellent as a Triad Boss. The other characters all hold themselves up well, including the boy playing Shuisheng, who is asked to downplay his emotions so as to depict a wooden "country bumpkin".<br /><br />Thanks to Roger Ebert this film has been thought to be one of Zhang Yimou's lesser films but it really shouldn't be so. Maybe something is lost in the translation, but if you really watch it in its original language understanding every nuance and every line of the dialog, "Shanghai Triad" will reveal itself as what it is: a masterpiece. A very underrated film. Highest recommendation.