Shanghai Grand (1996)

Director: Poon Man Kit

Producer: Tsui Hark, Chan Laam

Cast: Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing, Ning Jing, Amanda Lee Wai Man, Wu Hsing-Guo, Lau Shun

Running Time: 96 min.

Plot: Two friends destined to rule Shanghai's underworld become enemies when the daughter of a legendary tycoon comes into the picture. A romantic saga immersed in the wheeling and dealing lifestyle of Shanghai in the 1930's.

MAIROSU'S REVIEW: Ding Lik (Andy Lau) is a Shanghai city dweller, who dreams of becoming someone one day. His fortunes take a sharp turn when he accidentally stumbles upon Hui Man Keung (Leslie Cheung), a Taiwanese soldier who is on the run - they team up together and form a brotherly bond, which will be put on a test as one rises to the top of the underworld ladder, and another reveals his true colours...and oh, they also seem to be in love with the same woman, who just happens to be the daughter of Shanghai's biggest mobster.

Man Kit Poon's big-budget (I think) period piece Shanghai Grand is a decent, solid depiction of late 30s-early 40s China, but hardly anything spectacular. Film dangles three plots at the same time which ultimately mould into one near the end, mixing drama, romance and gangster noir genre, and does so with medium success. The first part of the film follows Ding Lik and portrays his rise to "fame", from a mere street cleaner to one of the big shots. Later on, we learn the past of his love interest, Ching-Ching Fung (played by beautiful Jing Ning), and his comrade Keung, who pursues a personal vendetta but puts it on hold so he could help Ding's cause. And of course, it all builds to a big showdown with tragic ending.

The biggest issue with this movie is that it jumps from character to character too fast and makes the plot somewhat disjointed and incoherent, which is a shame as it spoils some good acting work, especially by both male leads, Lau and Cheung, both veterans of Hong Kong cinema (and later pop singers as well). Pity that the nameless female assassin (Almen Wong) who haunts Keung gets limited screen time - her villainious persona easily steals the show in those few scenes she appears ; the main bad guy himself, King-Yiu Fung (Hsing-Kuo Wu), is rather under-used as well. The real quality of this film is probably the genuinely recreated atmosphere of the pre-war Shanghai, giving Shanghai Grand an authentic feeling to it.

All in all, this is not a bad film, but don't expect "the oriental Godfather" as some distributors tend to market it. And drop the final grading for half a notch if you suffer the misfortune of obtaining the English dubbed copy.

MAIROSU'S RATING: 5/10

EKU®'S REVIEW: It follows the original storyline from the TVB Series starring Chow Yun-fat as Hui Man-keung (that's Leslie Cheung's character) and Ray Lui as Ding Lik (played by Andy Lau in this version). Despite the violent scenes in this movie (which scared off my date), I enjoyed this movie overall. I thought the acting was pretty good especially Leslie Cheung. I'd say this movie was 33% romance, 33% action, 34% drama. I never saw the original series, but i can imagine it to be very good and very memorable for many people indeed.

EKU®'S RATING: 8/10