Shanghai Triad

Shanghai Triad (1994) is a film from china directed by Zhang Yimou. This film is based off of 1930's Chinese mafia. The Shanghai crime family brings in new people to become part of the family. A young boy is brought in by his uncle who is killed by the mafia in a horrible killing in front of him. The boy decides to get revenge for his uncles death and becomes a part of the mafia for revenge. The boss had to keep a low profile so he is not killed. He brings the young buy and his mistress to an island to hid out. The mafia eventually finds them and the boss and mistress are killed, the boy and the young her on the island are captured by the mafia as servants.  We never get to see what happens to the boy and little girl but from what we saw happen to the mistress throughout the film it can't be good. The mistress had no life of her own and had to do everything she was told. Even though she had a glamours life, she was actually miserable. In the end of the film, we can only image what will happen to this little girl and the young boy.

The theme of the film is loyalty. All the character in the film must be loyal to the boss of the mafia. If they go against the boss or any of the higher ranked officers, they will be killed. The mafia is all about loyalty and if anyone goes against that there will be problems. The mistress has to abide by this because she was brought up in this life style and cannot leave, she has no other choice but to be loyal to the boss.

I am not a huge fan of Chinese films in general but having the mafia aspect to this film made it much more interesting. There was a good twist at the end of the film, not allowing the audience to know what happens to the remaining character leaves more to the imagination. The costumes and sets were beautiful which really made the film.