The Last Tycoon

Shanghai in the early years of the republic. Cheng Daqi is a young man up from the provinces, working at a fruit stall. An incident lands him in prison, and by the time he comes out the girl he loves, Ye Zhiqiu, has been left behind. He goes into the city's underworld and over the years becomes one of the most powerful bosses in Shanghai. Then the Japanese army approaches, the secret service gets involved, and Cheng meets Ye Zhiqiu again; she is married now. Wong Jing directs, with Chow Yun-fat as Cheng and Huang Xiaoming as his younger self; Sammo Hung is also in the cast. A late example of the gangster tradition Hong Kong built around 1930s Shanghai, working nostalgia and action together.