its headline position in the New York Film Festival, The New York Times''' critic Janet Maslin opened her review that despite the clichéd genre of the "gangster film," Shanghai Triad nevertheless "movingly affirms the magnitude of [Zhang Yimou's] storytelling power." Derek Elley of the entertainment magazine Variety similarly found the film to be an achievement, particularly in how it played with genre conventions, calling the film a "stylized but gripping portrait of mob power play and lifestyles in 1930 Shanghai." Roger Ebert, however, provided a counterpoint to the film's praise, arguing that the choice of the boy as the film's main protagonist ultimately hurt the film, and that Shanghai Triad was probably "the last, and ... certainly the least, of the collaborations between the Chinese director Zhang Yimou and the gifted actress Gong Li" (though Gong would again work with Zhang in 2006's Curse of the Golden Flower). Even Ebert however, conceded that the film's technical credits were well done, calling Zhang one of the "best visual stylists of current cinema." Awards and nominations Cannes Film Festival (1995) Technical Grand Prize Camerimage Awards (1995) Golden Frog — Lü Yue (nominated) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (1995) LAFCA Award, Best Cinematography — Lü Yue New York Film Critics Circle Awards (1995) NYFCC Award, Best Cinematography — Lü Yue National Board of Review (1995) NBR Award, Best Foreign Language Film 53rd Golden Globe Awards (1996) Golden Globe, Best Foreign Language Film (nominated) 68th Academy Awards (1996) Best Cinematography — Lü Yue (nominated) Retail release Shanghai Triad'' was released on December 12, 2000 in the United States on region 1 DVD by Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar label. The DVD edition includes English and Spanish subtitles. The DVD is in the widescreen letterbox format with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Blu-ray with 108 minute runtime was released on Aug 4, 2020. See also Triads — Chinese underground societies that play a major part of the film References External links Shanghai Triad homepage at Sony Pictures Classics 1995 films Films set in Shanghai Films set in the 1930s 1995 crime drama films Triad films 1990s Mandarin-language films Films based on Chinese novels Films directed by Zhang Yimou Chinese crime drama films 1990s Hong Kong films