Shanghai Triad has an interesting MO. It is really a socio-historical commentary masquerading as a coming of age story masquerading as a Gangster Film.
Yimou makes bold storytelling choices - using the servant boy of a gang lord's mistress as the unlikely protagonist - shifting the setting of the film suddenly from bustling urban Shanghai to the peaceful Chinese Countryside.
The risk taking pays off - it is what separates Triad from generic Hollywood tripe.
Rather than some sort of high-handed morality play or costume melodrama, Yimou uses the story to illustrate the corruption of innocence, shifting loyalties and the endless struggle for power and dominance.
Yimou purposely subverts our expectations of the genre picture by denying any form of release - any false catharsis/closure.
The protagonist/viewer can only watch helplessly from the sidelines as the cycle of violence and exploitation continues.
This device will prove undoubtedly frustrating to a Hollywood Audience and I commend him for it.
Yimou makes bold storytelling choices - using the servant boy of a gang lord's mistress as the unlikely protagonist - shifting the setting of the film suddenly from bustling urban Shanghai to the peaceful Chinese Countryside.
The risk taking pays off - it is what separates Triad from generic Hollywood tripe.
Rather than some sort of high-handed morality play or costume melodrama, Yimou uses the story to illustrate the corruption of innocence, shifting loyalties and the endless struggle for power and dominance.
Yimou purposely subverts our expectations of the genre picture by denying any form of release - any false catharsis/closure.
The protagonist/viewer can only watch helplessly from the sidelines as the cycle of violence and exploitation continues.
This device will prove undoubtedly frustrating to a Hollywood Audience and I commend him for it.