Shanghai (2010)

Admirable film.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a fascinating movie in many ways, not least for its partially successful elucidation of a particularly dark period in Shanghai's colourful history. However, "Shanghai" comes across all too often as a confused mish-mash of other movies - Casablanca and The Third Man both spring rather too readily to mind - while offering little of its own in the way of an original plot or any intriguing character arcs.Solid acting work all 'round. Franka Potente is probably the most watchable of the actors here, despite being less toothsome than Gong Li (who looks every bit her age in this movie but is still ravishingly attractive).There are a few intriguing glimpses of Shanghai as it might have been in the early 40s, including one particularly well-recreated crane shot of the Bund - although I have to say the ships look just a tad too close to the imposing British-built buildings lining that famous boulevard. There's another shot from inside the Cusack character's hotel room showing a few of Shanghai's classic buildings through the window, clearly digitally composited as those particular buildings could never have been viewed that way from the one vantage point. However, it seems (judging from the credits) that the vast majority of this movie was shot in Thailand, and thus most of the street scenes and interiors are fairly generic and not particularly evocative of Shanghai's history. For a much better rendition of this you need to have a look at Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" which treads similar territory (Shanghai, spies, Japanese occupation etc) with much more style.Indeed I find myself wondering why this movie was made at all, given that pretty much 100% of its thematic territory had been covered by Lee's movie just a couple of years before, and with considerably more chutzpah.Nevertheless...if you're a fan of any of these actors, it's worth a look.

The plot takes place in Shanghai a part of China the Japanese didn't completely take over yet during the Japanese invasion and occupation of China in 1940's. Jeffrey Dean Morgan has a scene in the beginning a very short scene and you wonder why he would want to be cast for this movie. But he gets some flashback scenes which makes his decision sort of makes sense. Anyways the plot mainly revolves around Paul Soames(John Cusack) investigating a friends death while the Chinese and the Japanese are basically having something similar to a gang war between each other in Shanghai. Mainly between the Chinese resistance and the Japanese servants to their emperor. The movie also has spy elements to it and doing espionage on the Japanese and Nazis, mostly on the Japanese. The flaw of this film is that it just doesn't have good character interactions sometimes and not very clever and sometimes not all that believable. I could tell this movie is a homage to noir and even if the topic at hand is interesting, the movie as a whole just wasn't that great. The movie moves slowly and doesn't cover as much as it should with it's run time. both actors play a role they probably wasn't proud of. Not much is accomplished during the run time of this movie. This is a decent film and a good homage to noir, but I can see why this movie didn't do so well. It just isn't for mainstream audiences and and besides the performances it just seemed like a straight to DVD film despite the large budget. Even if the film to some degree accomplished what it tries to do to some degree. I was disappointed in a way since the movie didn't go the direction I wanted it to go, which isn't anything against this film but my own wants. Mainly because almost all the screen-time is on John Cusack despite it having well known Asian actors. The second most screen-time goes to Gong Li. The biggest reason I wanted to see this movie is because it has Chow Yun-Fat and Ken Watanabe and was expecting a face off between the two different characters these actors will play in a clever manner. Which would have been cool, but that wasn't the case. And another disappointment is how these two Asian actors hardly has any screen-time, their roles are small. The main element that drives this film is the characters impulses and intentions, which will keep you guessing and until everything is put together and everything comes together is a above average manner.7.8/10

This movie captures that period of 30's Shanghai quite well. Well I wouldn't be the best person to judge considering I know little about that time, but from what I had seen in this film, it was very intriguing.This espionage/war film gets your attention. The plot is not too complicated, has a nice pace, good performances and an international cast. John Cusack is decent in this role, Gong Li is gorgeous as ever and her English seems to have improved. She captures the screen with her grace and beauty, but also a believable performance. Chow Yun Fat is equally as good. Ken Watanabe - a good performance though he really needs to work more on making his accent understandable as I still have a little trouble with him, but nevertheless makes a good icy character.The last act creates the suspense very well, though I'll have to admit, though I found the ending dramatic and decent, it might have been more interesting if they actually filmed what happened instead of doing the voice-over, but hey I guess budget constraints and time can get in the way, so I'm alright with it I suppose.This is a visual feast. It is good to see many actors of different nationalities blend in for what is a cross country story. Japan/China/Germany. Franka Potente has a role here too, which I enjoyed as well.The only problem with the film, though it wasn't it's fault, was that the version I watched did not have English subtitles when they were talking in Chinese. At first, I thought that this was part of the movie, as you weren't meant to understand it, but there are important scenes near the end where I had no clue what they were saying. It didn't mean I didn't get the rest of the plot or what was happening, but that could have given me a bit more to work with and more juice as well. Oh well, it's not their fault.This is an enjoyable movie, and it captures that sense of mystery, mistrust, betrayal and fear that you experience during an espionage/war film. Though this isn't essentially a war film in that it's main focus is about blowing up people etc, it is about the struggle of invasion and the effects of it. Recommended.I hope it gets a wider release in the US and here in Australia because it is a good film.

I have really enjoyed this excellent movie, since i love war films. This one is about a pre-Pearl Harbor Shanghai, where Japanese, Chinese, Nazi, American intelligence services clash, and it's common people who make history. John Cusack is a great choice for the main role, and he delivers his part impeccably. Being a secret agent, he is deeply sensitive and sensible man, who wants to reveal some mysteries and he is right in the whirlwind of a war craze. Other actors include Chow Yun Fat, Gong Li, among others, and they all do great jobs. Japanese soldiers fight the Chinese partisans, Americans try to find out what they think will help... and all this is a dizzying background to a deep touching story of love, hate, cowardice, friendship, bravery and valor. This movie is highly recommended