Review of Shanghai Triad (1995) by Matt G — 26 Apr 2010

Colorful, pretty stuff by Zhang Yimou once again. Unfortunately, the story is bogged down by lazy cliches and pales in comparison, narratively, to other Chinese films of this era. Another attempt at conveying the flaws of moralistically troubled adults through the eyes of a child.

Visually, this is interesting, but story-wise, this is boring. The central child character lacks any sort of emotional landscape. He sees things, but he isn't involved. A distance separates him from the story, and to what effect? Zhang Yimou seems to ignore what makes a story impact an audience, and hand feeds the information in the story quite often.

I think the film would have benefited from the ellipticism of a Hou Hsiao-Hsien movie perhaps. Or maybe it is that I just do not like Zhang's films.