Yao a yao yao dao waip qiao (Shanghai Triad, 1995)

Yao a yao yao dao waip qiao (Shanghai Triad, 1995) is a Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou. It takes place in Shanghai, China when the streets were ruled by organized crime. The story is told of Shuisheng, a young, naive country boy, and the things he experiences during his time as a servant of Xiao Jingbao. This beautiful woman happens to be the mischievous mistress of Shuisheng's distant uncle, Tang, a powerful and extremely wealthy Triad crimelord.

Shuisheng is brought from the country to Shanghai by his Uncle Liu, another servant of the Tang crime family. Liu takes Shuisheng to the Tang estate and gives him a tour of the place, showing him the ropes along the way, and introducing him to Xiao Jingbao - the spoiled performance singer of the boss who Shuisheng serves for the remainder of the movie. Shuisheng, at first, is overwhelmed and out-of-place of all his responsibilities and this new, exciting, and loud environment suddenly thrust upon him.

He does a clumsy and poor job of taking out his orders, breaking and spilling things all ove the place along the way and Xiao has very little patience. On top of that, Shuisheng witnesses many shocking and intense events living among ruthless gang members. As the movie progresses, the Tang family gets involved in a gang war with an opposing force, led by a character named Fat Yu. During a shootout, Shuisheng's Uncle Liu is killed and the boss is injured.

As a precaution, Boss Tang, Xiao, Shuisheng, and a few others take a boat to a remote island in the meantime, to protect and hide the boss while things cool down. The island is occupied by only a poor lady and her young daughter. In the end, it is discovered that one of Tang's closest men, Song, had been a traitor the whole time. He had also been having an affair with Xiao Jingbao the whole time as well. He had been planning to have Tang and his people killed on the island, but the plan backfires as Tang had already known of his scheming. Song is taken out as well as all of his men and Xiao. The story ends on a sad note as Tang sails back to Shanghai with the daughter of the now murdered poor lady on the island and Shuisheng as an unwilling servant held in captive.

Shanghai Triad was probably my second favorite movie that we have viewed in class after Tsotsi. The cinematography was beautiful and well done, especially during all the scenes which took place at the lavish Tang estate. The settings, props, and costumes of the movie were all very fitting and impressive, giving the viewer a strong feel of being present in each scene of the movie. Another quality that helped that feeling was the camera work and the angles used in this aspect. The director did a good job of using the first person point of view to make you feel as if you were in Shuisheng's shoes. This specefic effect stood out in one scene in particular - the one where Shuisheng followed a trail of noises and gunfire to a pool of blood. Shortly afterwards, he discovered a room where dead bodies of Tang gang members were being washed and taken care of, among them Shuisheng's Uncle Liu. The first person point of view, followed by Shuisheng's facial reaction was a great way of portraying the boy's feelings of what had just occurred.

I was also fascinated by one theme that I, myself, noticed throughout the film. It was the contrast of innocence and sin, which I found to be prevalent during the course of the story. Shuisheng, as a young, poor, and naive boy from the country represented innocence. He had never before witnessed the horrid things he was suddenly surrounded by when he started serving the Tang crime family. On the other side of innocence was everyone he was surrounded by - gang members who lived dishonest lives and even killed others. Shuisheng's innocence was strengthened by his curiosity and the music they played during the parts he snooped around to see what was going on - specifically the scene where he was walking up the stairs of the mistress' house to discover her affair with Song.

Another part of the storyline which I enjoyed was the character development of Tang's mstress, Xiao Jingbao. At first, she is portrayed as a mischievious, selfish, stuckup, and spoiled woman. She wants all the attention and adoration from everyone, and when she does not get what she wants, all she does is whine and complain until she gets it. However, especially after she moves to the remote island, she begins to grow as a person. She sees the lady living there and the daughter, and at first, thinks of herself as above and better than them. Eventually, she begins to relate to the poor lady and even comes to her for comfort. When she finds out that she had been killed and that she herself was partially to blame, she is full of guilt.

One thing that surprised me about the movie was the ending. I was not expecting it to end on a sad note at all. However, it made the film all the more better. It was a surprise ending and made the story entertaining from the very beginning to the very end. Shanghai Triad is a movie which I enjoyed thoroughly.