Song of Shanghai

It doesn't seem to stop snowing.


Snow snow everywhere...
"It's even colder where you're going, you know."

I turned to look at my ISO standing several feet away with his cherished cigarette in hand, watching me disapprovingly. He doesn't understand - nor accept - the decision I'm making. Then again he probably objects to standing in the blustery cold of a winter's night at the edge of the deserted Bund. "Guess you'll have to loan me a sweater."


Smoke gets in your eyes...
"Leaving this place for good?" My ISO gestured towards the glittering row of skyscrapers towering above the Bund. "What the hell are you going to do there?"

"My uncle has a shop in Beijing and he's retiring." Which means the end of my brief but eventful sojourn in Shanghai though I always knew that it would never last. In the relative silence of the night, I imagine that I might still hear the creamy smooth croon of Preity Posh headlining in the Paradise Club, the muted din at the entry doorway as elegantly dressed patrons came by in their hired rickshaws and shiny automobiles.

Chuckling softly, he dropped his cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it underfoot. "Doing what your father intended? Weighing herbs, crushing roots and making medicine?"

He's never thought much of that particular dream. "If that's where destiny is leading me. Calvin will teach music, I guess."

The thought of that dour entertainer taking up music lessons for spoilt bourgeouis children makes him grin a little. "You ever throwing that?"

I looked down at the folded package in my hand. Moments ago, I had already decided to turn my back on my disreputable past, dropping the weapon into the murky depths of the Huangpu where it rightfully belonged. But as I held the still warm pistol in my hand, I hesitated.

My ISO might be able to kill with the tip of a pen but I needed something far more substantial. "Who knows. I might still have a use for it."

Guess what I did all this weekend. I researched Beijing. I read up on Chinese History. I ate dim sum this morning. And watched the movie Blood Brothers after lunch.

Then when I reached home for a nap, I found myself transported to Shanghai again. I blame the dim sum. Didn't kill anyone this time though so that's a vast improvement - though I have to wonder why the pistol was still warm.

But can anyone blame me? I think almost everyone's helplessly fascinated with that particular era, the decadent, cosmopolitan Shanghai of the 1930s. Hell it's the literal stuff of romance and adventure - and of course, movies in turn with all that grit and glamour, heartbreak and tragedy...

Not that I would recommend Blood Brothers wholeheartedly but it's worth a visit just to have a peek at what life must have been like back then ( during the evanescent boom years after the civil war and before the Japanese invasion ) - or at least the glorified cinematic version of it. Like the city itself, the movie has short poignant moments that flare too briefly only to die away, leaving us very little chance to truly appreciate and empathize with the multi-faceted characters.

The ever-hunky Daniel Wu plays the main character of Fung - forming a buddy-buddy threesome of sorts ( not the naughty fuckbuddies we love but the more platonic sort ) with Hu and Kang who move from the sheltered countryside to glamorous 1930s Shanghai only to tumble inevitably into the seedy criminal underworld. Plagued with time constraints and choppy editing ( or would the blame go to our overzealous scissor-happy censors? ), there is little time to appreciate the tragic loss of innocence as these three country boys literally find themselves enmeshed with the prevalent underbelly of society. Even poor Daniel Wu fails to carry the show - though from my POV that might stem from a serious lack of shirtless naked torso time.

I only empathize with Mark ( played by Zhang Zhen ) the tortured, charismatic enforcer of the triad who longs to walk the straight and narrow. Doesn't mean he isn't willing to gun down the few obstacles standing in his way however :) Now, that Mark can shanghai me anytime!


Shuqi ( who I love ever since her incredible martial arts display in So Close ) who plays the ravishing gangster's moll sings the theme song as above :)