Shanghai Triad (1995) on Netflix
Tang Shuisheng, fourteen, comes from the countryside to 1930s Shanghai to serve Xiao Jinbao, a cabaret singer and a Triad boss's mistress. A rival, Fat Yu, is starting a gang war.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.1/106,457 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the 1930s, fourteen-year-old Tang Shuisheng leaves the countryside for Shanghai to work for a Triad boss, a distant relative of his. His uncle, Liushu, brings him to the boss's home and gives him a place in the household. There the boy is assigned to serve Xiao Jinbao, a cabaret singer and the boss's mistress. Shuisheng is awed by the wealth around him. A rival named Fat Yu is starting a gang war.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shanghai Triad (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After To Live landed Zhang Yimou in trouble with Chinese authorities, he was temporarily banned from making films funded from overseas, so Shanghai Triad could only go ahead once it was officially classed as a local production.
- Shanghai Triad was the seventh and final collaboration between Zhang Yimou and Gong Li, a partnership that began with his 1987 debut Red Sorghum and became a romance; when filming wrapped, the two ended it professionally and personally, not working together again until 2006's Curse of the Golden Flower.
- Shanghai Triad was first planned as a straight adaptation of Li Xiao's novel Gang Law, but the story shifted to the viewpoint of the young boy Tang Shuisheng and Gong Li's character grew more important, so the title was changed to fit its new "younger" perspective.
