User reviews

_Shanghai Grand_ is a beautifully filmed period gangster film set in, as the title might suggest, Shanghai. It's a very dark film with a film noir feel, gritty and, at times, graphically violent. The use of silent movie style placards to introduce different "chapters" in the film is novel and helps anchor _Shanghai Grand_ in the period in which it is set.

As is the case with many Honkonese films, themes of love, betrayal, honour and duty intertwine to create a complex and interesting plot; careful composition and cinematography add to the mix to make _Shanghai Grand_ a very proficient and worthwhile experience.

OK...the 3 handsome male leads, one being the tragically departed leslie cheung, the 2nd being andy lau and in the 2nd half of the movie a very young korean superstar jung woo sung and in my personal opinion, they have never looked better.

love found, love lost and love shunned...rousing and heartbreaking at the same time with some very good action pieces involved. one of the best movies of the mid to late nineties.

andy lau has never looked better, that pencil thin mustache that he acquires really makes him stand out.

this movie is actually a reworking of a long television series of the early 80's which made chow yun fat a superstar. the plots been changed majorly although the 2 main male leads kept the same names as in the TV series.

the story takes place in 1930's shanghai pre-world war 2 and has a lot of subplots involving turncoats working for the Japanese who are major gangsters in shanghai, Chinese patriots and just plain gangsters vying for power and also the corrupt cops who patrol shanghai who sell themselves to the highest bidder regardless.

heartbreaking story of two brothers by action, who take over shanghais criminal underworld and the misunderstanding over a woman who comes between them and the bloodshed that ensues.

this movie gets a very strong recommendation to watch...from me so if you are a fan of hong kong cinema its a don't miss.

This fairly big budget flick with Andy Lau is a complex gangster story with several sub-plots. Set in the 30s the movie is stylish, violent, and very entertaining. A great "first film" for those new to Hong Kong cinema. Almen Wong shines as the nameless brutally insane assassin, the worlds prettiest hired thug!

This movie to me was bit boring. Not because it doesn't have lot of action, but something about it was awkward, forced and slow paced. Maybe for people who're familiar with the plot and the culture this movie hits the mark, but for someone who has no preconceived notion or expectation, it's who cares from start to finish. These guy's problems and issues are so remote, and their machismo so utterly stupid, that I felt like saying, if you want to insist on being so stupid, be my guest.

If this is the classic way they made movies, I'm glad that it's not made this way anymore. Each scene was so boring. There wasn't anything to pull you in to the story.

What happened in the end happened but again it was who cares. If they're that bull headed, it would have happened sooner or later. Yeah, these guys had no brains whatsoever. And they were supposed to be a leader in their respective society.

I'm a fan of Andy Lau, but this movie didn't show his character at all. Everybody did a real wooden acting that added to the yawn. No, this is not a film noir, they didn't flesh out the characters and the story, and the flat mood went from start to finish.

Not recommended unless you're familiar with how this story goes, and watching it as a follow up to where the TV series left off, or just watching it for Leslie Chung (and Andy Lau).