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Review
by Kozo: |
Popular music producer/short guy Teddy Robin directed
this period action drama that takes place in the 1930s. Yuen
Biao is Small Tiger, a country bumpkin who arrives in
Shanghai to make it big. He hooks up with his brother
Big Tiger (George Lam), who’s a colonel in the military.
Big Tiger is in a long-standing love triangle between
Kai Pik (Anita Mui) and Ting Ting (Tien Niu). Though
he’s caught between the two women, duty calls when a
large amount of money is stolen from the Revolutionary
Fund.
In investigating the money
loss, Small Tiger discovers that Kai Pik is in fact
a high-ranking revolutionary. However, Kai Pik believes
that the money has been stolen by Small Tiger, who’s
become a righteous triad at the behest of Kai Pik’s
Godfather (Sammo Hung), who’s a pretty big boss in the
area. It turns out that Hung is the one who stole the
fund, but not before numerous loyalties are tested,
in particular the bond between the two brothers who
now find themselves on opposite sides of the law.
A well meaning production,
the film unfortunately stalls because of poor plot development.
There seems to be little urgency, despite the script
telegraphing such. This is all surprising considering
that Raymond To was one of the writers. I guess we should
all blame Teddy Robin, who’s never proven himself to
be much of a director. For some odd reason, the movie
clocks in at only 80 minutes, meaning that it never
has the chance to explore the characters and situations
that it sets up.
Thankfully there are some distractions
that serve to move the film along, if not tie it together
entirely. Anita Mui is at her most charismatic, and
she handles the action sequences convincingly. Of particular
note is the set piece occurs when Mui and Yuen Biao
fight while dancing in a nightclub. Also, this film
marks one of the few screen appearances of popstar Sandy
Lam, as well as a rare villain turn by Sammo Hung. It’s
unfortunate that a better overall film couldn’t have
been made, but for brief flashes Shanghai Shanghai can be as entertaining as they come. (Kozo
1998) |
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