Here is a gangster movie that mixes styles and moods, sometimes within the same scene, to such a degree that one never really understands just what the filmmakers are trying to achieve. The effect is entertaining and confusing, and ultimately so diffuse as to leave little impact.

"Jiang Hu", literally "rivers and lakes", connotes the wandering swordsmen of ancient days and in modern parlance refers to the triad underworld. It is a world that has virtually taken over Cantonese celluloid in the decade-and-a-half since the box office success of A Better Tomorrow. And while triad movies no longer command the public adulation they once enjoyed, they still manage to hang on and, in the case of The Triad Zone, attempt to redefine themselves.

As interpreted by director Dante Lam Chiu-yin, it is a world where blood-splattered battles and tear-wrenching emotions share centre stage with witty farce and low humour. It is one of those stories that defies easy summary, involving mob boss and master manipulator Yam (Tony Leung Ka-fai) and his efforts to enlarge his empire even while a contract is out on his life. He is aided by an intellectual politician (Chan Fai-hung) and a loyal bodyguard (Roy Cheung Yiu-yeung), but the real power behind the throne is Yam’s hard-as-nails yet endearingly vulnerable wife Sophie (Sandra Ng Kwun-yue).

Leung and Ng have a field day with their roles, with each called upon to swing between understated dramatics and over-the-top scenery chewing. Tony even gets to display the rump he made famous in The Lover. More flamboyant is Sandra’s punk look, complete with big hair and nose ring, when she meets Tony during a flashback shot on location in London Chinatown. The locale is just another indication that this is no ordinary triad picture.

But just what it is never comes into focus. Stylistically it is all over the place. At turns realistic and expressionistic, there is suddenly an otherworldly dimension provided by the appearance of the legendary god Kwan, played by none other than screen eccentric Anthony Wong Chau-sang. And this is just the tip of an iceberg that contains a skilled turn by Law Lan, as an elderly triad widow who is more than she seems, and several star cameos, most surprising that of director Ann Hui as one of Sandra’s mahjong cronies.

While the whole is somehow less than the sum of its many intriguing parts, Jiang Hu demonstrates that "the triad zone" is a lot broader than previous screen portrayals have indicated.

2 1/2 stars

This review is copyright (c) 2000 by Paul Fonoroff. All rights reserved. No part of the review may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.