Shuisheng is then taken by his uncle to Tang's palatial home, where he is assigned to serve Xiao Jinbao, a cabaret singer and mistress of the Boss.

On the third night, Shuisheng witnesses a bloody gang fight between the Boss and a rival, Fat Yu, in which his uncle is killed.

Shuisheng, while evacuating his bowels in the reeds, overhears hiding men plotting, amongst other things, to kill Jinbao.

The director has since noted that his selection of Shanghai Triad to follow up the politically controversial To Live was no accident, as he hoped that a "gangster movie" would be a conventional film.

This plan eventually changed with Gong Li's character becoming more important and the story's viewpoint shifting to that of the young boy, Tang Shuisheng.

The website's critical consensus states: "Well-acted and beautifully filmed, Shanghai Triad deftly depicts a young man's coming of age against the backdrop of mob violence and its punishing legacy".

[4] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating generally favourable reviews.

[2] Even Ebert however, conceded that the film's technical credits were well done, calling Zhang one of the "best visual stylists of current cinema.

"[2] Shanghai Triad was released on December 12, 2000 in the United States on region 1 DVD by Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar label.