Customer Reviews

Triads: The Inside Story

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Actor, Chow Yun Fat, plays a character named, Li Man-Ho and comes Hong Kong to join the Triad Mafia after his uncle is killed (the previouse leader). Coming from a regular life, living with his wife and kid, Li Man-Ho sees the dangerous side of crime; exposing himself to violence and betrayal and greed.
He is scared at first, but rises to power quickly and takes territories controlled by rival gangs.

The other reviewer was very accurate about this movie in stating that it is the "poor man's Godfather". The story seems very similar in the aspect about how a civilian becomes a crimelord after the passing of a family member. The problem with this is that it pales in comparison to the Godfather saga. Triads, is also not depicted realistically, you can tell it is a low budget film and everything about it is B.S. The triads all live in run-down houses (instead of nice homes), they wear clothing like poor people (instead of suits), they fight street battles with knives and metal pipes (instead of guns). It's more like a homeless war instead of a mafia war, which makes me laugh and angers me at the unrealistic portrayal of China's Triad mafia which in fact is the most powerful and influential mafia. Not even Chow Yun Fat's, charasmatic acting can save this pathetic movie. The DVD contains trailers and previews of other low budget asian action films. Another thing that surprised me about this one is that at the beginning of the film you will see the Dolby Digital logo, which means that the sound was supposedly cleaned-up and digitally re-mastered. This is absolutely false; you will hear poor sound quality through out your viewing experience...but does it really matter since the movie sucks anyway? If you want to see a different mafia movie, watch an american movie called "King of New York" with Christopher Walken.

Being a CYF fan, I borrowed this DVD hoping to find a masterpiece like HARD BOILED or THE KILLER. Despite being a ganster film, much like a poor man's GODFATHER, TRIADS is entertaining, and, if you're into heavy action, well, this is it.
It drops at the end, but that's OK, for the movie is entertaining and very watchable.