Shanghai Triad (1995)

Director: Zhang Yimou

Screenwriter: Bi Feiyu

Starring: Gong Li / Li Baotian / Li Xuejian / Sun Chun / Fu Biao / More...

Genre: Drama / Crime Production

Country/Region: Chinese mainland / France

Language: Mandarin Release

Date: 1995-05 (Cannes Film Festival) / 1995-11-08 (France) Runtime: 108 minutes (Canada)

Also known as: Shanghai Triad

IMDb: tt0115012

Plot Summary: In the 1930s, a country boy named Tang Shuisheng comes to Shanghai to seek refuge with his sixth uncle (Li Xuejian). Through his introduction, he becomes the personal servant of the singing and dancing queen Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li). Xiao Jinbao is the wife of Tang Lao Ye (Li Baotian), a powerful figure in Shanghai, but she has an affair with his subordinate Song Er Ye, who has long coveted Tang Lao Ye's position.

Uncle Liu's sudden death alarmed Master Tang, who took Xiao Jinbao, Shuisheng, and others to a deserted island sheltered only by widowed Cuihua and her two children. He ordered the execution of all faces—both familiar and unknown—on the island. Through her interactions with Cuihua, Xiao Jinbao developed a new perspective on life and grew increasingly resentful of Master Tang's cruelty. Yet her fate remained firmly in the hands of the tyrant.