Shanghai Triad

In 1930s Shanghai, a young boy from the countryside named Shuisheng is brought to the city by his uncle Liushu and placed in the household of a powerful triad boss. There he becomes a servant to Bijou, the boss's mistress, a nightclub singer whose position at the top of the criminal underworld depends on his favour. The arrangement draws the boy into the rivalries and shifting loyalties surrounding the gang, including the ambitions of Song, the boss's second-in-command.

Zhang Yimou directed the film, his sixth feature, arriving between To Live and Not One Less. Gong Li plays Bijou, with Li Baotian as Boss Tang, Sun Chun as Song, Li Xuejian as Uncle Liushu and Fu Biao as Laosan. Bi Feiyu wrote the screenplay, and the production was a Chinese-French co-production made on a budget of about two million dollars. It runs 108 minutes.

On IMDb the film holds a 7.1 rating from around 6,400 votes, while on TMDB it has a 6.8 from roughly 118 votes. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from 29 reviews is in line with those audience scores, suggesting a broadly consistent reception across viewers and reviewers.