Shanghai Triad

Shanghai Triad (1995) is Zhang Yimou's crime drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. The setting: 1930s Shanghai, a gangland empire, and a country boy dropped into the middle of someone else's war.

Young Shuisheng is brought to the city by his uncle and put to work serving Xiao Jingbao, the temperamental nightclub singer who happens to be the mistress of Tang, the triad's untouchable boss. Gong Li plays her as half-diva, half-prisoner of her own silk and jewels. The boy watches and says nothing — lavish dinners, smoky clubs, betrayals, and gunfire no one explains. Seven days age him by years.

Yimou tells a mob story through a child's eyes, trading swagger for the cold gleam of wealth and blood. Cinematographer Lü Yue landed an Oscar nomination for the look of it, and the film closed the main competition at Cannes. A hard, gorgeous, oddly quiet entry in the genre. Stream Shanghai Triad (1995) online on iFILM.