More
heavy-handed melodrama than hard-boiled gangster film, Triad is somewhat of
letdown for what the title offers. Perhaps the filmmakers intended to give a
more realistic portrayal of the Triad gang lifestyle, but the slow-motion romance
scenes destroy this realism rather quickly. Although there are a few sequences
of extreme violence, much of the film resembles something you might see in a
soap opera.
Beginning where
nearly all gangster stories seem to start, Triad tells the story of three
childhood friends who eventually grow up to become gangsters together.
Inevitably, two are pitted against each other despite their childhood bonds.
One of the friends is also extremely intelligent, but chooses to stay in the
gang as he grows up. The film takes place over a long enough period of time
that we are meant to believe that they have all grown up (and apart), but the
film doesn’t do much other than change the actors clothing to show this
transformation into adulthood.
I’m being harder
on this film than it probably deserves, mostly because there was very little
worth praising or criticizing. The biggest offense of Triad is how unremarkable
it is, leaving little mark on the memory while making 92-minutes feel far
longer than it should. The DVD includes a making-of featurette, as well as a
trailer.
Entertainment Value:
4/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 4/10
Historical
Significance: 2 /10
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