Trailer for Once Upon a Time in Shanghai.
1930s, Shanghai. Four triads hold the city within an iron grip. Among the rain-slicked streets, smoky nightclubs, and debonair gangsters, Ma Yongzhen arrives from the country to work as a laborer. Despite being blessed with a preternatural talent for kung fu, he has promised his mother to stay out of trouble. Meanwhile, Long Qi, an ambitious young gangster, usurps leadership of the Axe Gang, giving him control over half of Shanghai: a development that earns the ire of the other gang lords. Ma’s fighting prowess soon attracts Long’s attention and the two develop an unexpected friendship. However, as tensions rise between the mainland and Imperial Japan, a network of spies manipulates the remaining triad bosses into launching a vendetta against Long Qi. Now both Long and Ma must fight for their lives against an overwhelming force of assassins.