New Trailer for Restored Re-Release of Zhang Yimou's 'Shanghai Triad'

"This is Shanghai. There are hidden rules in everything you do and say." Film Movement has unveiled a new trailer for the restored re-release of Zhang Yimou's Shanghai Triad, celebrating 25 years since its original release in 1995. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995, then opened in US cinemas in December that year. It won a special prize for Best Cinematography in Cannes, then went on to earn an Oscar nomination also for Best Cinematography. In the film, a provincial boy related to a Shanghai crime family is recruited by his uncle into Shanghai in the 1930s to be a servant to a ganglord's mistress. Over the course of seven days, he observes mounting tensions as triad boss Tang begins to suspect traitors amongst his ranks. Shanghai Triad is described as "a thrilling and sumptuously stylized potboiler about the Chinese criminal underworld of the 1930s from legendary director Zhang Yimou." Starring Gong Li, Baotian Li, Wang Xiaoxiao, Li Xuejian, and Sun Chun. This is the perfect time to catch this if you've never seen it.

Here's the official re-release trailer (+ posters) for Zhang Yimou's Shanghai Triad, direct from YouTube:

Hired to be a servant to pampered nightclub singer and mob moll Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li), naive teenager Shuisheng (Wang Xiaoxiao) is thrust into the glamorous and deadly 1930s demimonde of Shanghai's crime syndicates. Over the course of seven days, Shuisheng observes mounting tensions as triad boss Tang begins to suspect traitors amongst his ranks and rivals for Xiao Jinbao's affections. Zhang's inventive take on the gangster film is "assured and attention-grabbing" and Gong's central performance, "a portrait of a capricious and indulgent woman who gains depth as we watch her -- is one of her finest". Shanghai Triad, also known as Shanghai Serenade or "Yao a yao, yao dao wai po qiao", is directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who directed the films Red Sorghum, Codename Cougar, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju, and To Live before making this. The screenplay is by Bi Feiyu, based on the novel by Xiao Li. This first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. Film Movement is showing the restored re-release of Shanghai Triad in "virtual cinemas" starting on June 26th. For more details, visit their website.