Shanghai

They sure don't make films like these anymore. Back in the 1930's - 1950's the cinemas were filled with reels of gangster/detective films shot in black and white. The days of classic films such as "Double Indemnity", "Notorious", "The Maltese Falcon" and "Touch Of Evil" were long gone. In it's place we have, today, overbudgeted, overblown films that causes today's youthful audiences to have Attention Deficit Disorder and be bored at any film that is not filled with explosions every two milliseconds. In between then and now we had many homages to film-noir that stand out on their own. Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" for instance is the best "neo-noir" film ever made and many films directed by Michael Mann also have strong noirish influences. "Shanghai", while not excellent, manages to become a good, neat little thriller on its own right, but properly includes the classic noirish themes of the 40's - 50's that gave the classic films the reputation they have now.

Granted, the script by Hossein Amini has mostly nothing new apart from the noirish elements from those other classic noir films. It's an old- fashioned American murder mystery, but set in the Far East. Familiar plot revelations take place as our hero weaves his way through a web of lies, deceit/deception, betrayal, romance, murder, corruption, and in this film's case, war. What stood out in the film's screenplay is the number of languages used in the film: English, Japanese and Chinese, although I wished the latter two were featured more prominently than they were in the final film. And I have to admit, although unoriginal, the twists in the movie are intriguing and kept my attention.

The international actors are great and fit into their roles like tailor- made suits. John Cusack as the protagonist gives off his Bogie-like character a subtle and calm performance that is also charming. Gong Li, beautiful as ever, is the main dame of the film and she has that sultry, mysterious look in her eyes that you can't take your eyes off of her. Chow Yun-Fat, finally in a role worth watching him in, is the mob boss who may or may not be on Cusack's character's side, as he adapts an extremely charming yet secretive personality under that face of his. And Ken Watanabe has that sinister vibe in him as the film's primary antagonist, though he exudes a certain class to his villainous character. Fine supporting characters played by interesting actors such as David Morse, Rinko Kikuchi, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Franka Potente round up the very distinguished and diversified cast.

Production value and cinematography are top-notch as they transport you back in time to the glamor and grit of pre-occupied Shanghai, with its well-designed and furbished sets/locations filled with plenty of real extras instead of CG ones for a nice change, and crisp, properly lighted scenes with big and wide camera angles so to appreciate the settings even more. Klaus Badelt scores the film with a proper suspenseful element to it making it feel more at home with the noirish crowd without feeling to overdone, thus also making it easier to evoke emotions in the audience, especially to those who are new to the noir genre. Thanks to Mikael Håfström for his focused direction in bringing the best out of the actors.

This is, more importantly, a throwback to the noirish days of old. This film would be a great starting point for those new to noir, and people who like thrillers should give this nostalgic time capsule a chance.

Entertainment value: 9/10

Overall: 7/10

Shanghai takes place just before Japan entered the World War Two. Paul Soames (John Cusack) comes to China to look for his friend who, like him, worked for the American intelligence effort. From that basic setting we end up getting a good mystery thriller, with all the usual good stuff. Glamorous women, elegant locations, the looming threat of war, betrayals, reveals, backstabbing and more.

One of the film's strengths are its actors. I haven't seen Cusack in anything for a while, but he's still in great shape and gives a good performance as your typical silent neo-noir investigator hero. Li Gong is also very good as Anna Lan-Ting, the resident femme fatale.

Truth be told, I kind of wish the script was a bit better so that these people could have really stretched their wings. As it is, it's not bad, but it's not really all that original either. You can figure out the mystery pretty early if you know anything about history, the biggest twist when it comes to characters also comes near the beginning, none of the romance subplots really surprise and as a whole, while I was entertained, I wasn't really that thrilled.

Shanghai is a good film to check out if you're a fan of wartime period pieces and want to see one that, for a change, doesn't take place in Western Europe. It has great actors, a decent script, excellent production values and a tight enough pacing to make up for its unoriginality.

We've seen this in spy movies before: men do things because it is their duty, for whatever reason they feel it is, until they meet a woman. Then it all goes haywire. Most of the time, people love this kind of script and when you have the cast that you have: Cusack, Chow, Watanabe, Morse, Morgan, you expect to love a good old fashioned spy movie that also teaches about the period before the Japanese entering the second world war. Asian sensibilities in the romantic noir period: win!

However, the biggest sin of the movie was, believe it or not, the editing. John Cusack is not a fantastic actor, but he is good enough. Ken Watanabe is always good, no matter what kind of movie you cast him in, and all of David Morse, Yun-Fat Chow and Jeffrey Dean Morgan had marginal roles, yet well acted. However the editing of the material was horrendous, to the point where you didn't actually get what the movie was about, who was who and what were they doing. For Western audiences that do not know the history in the region - as myself - would be especially difficult to understand where the plot is going and what are the different factions and what their goals are.

I wanted to like the movie, a detective noir about spies in Shanghai before the Japanese declaration of war and the reasons why Americans might not have found out in time about the Pearl Harbor attack: women! :) but it didn't work out that way. Instead it felt a little bit like another bit of Asian/Cusack melange: Dragon Blade, which was just as epic and just as clumsy a production.

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.

Shanghai impressed me as a very well-made film. This tale of espionage and double dealing kept me hooked throughout. Shanghai compels the viewer to pay attention in order to piece together a jumble of unclear relationships and alliances. There are many acts of betrayal in the story and they unfold from start to finish. The film also gets high marks for its depiction of pre-World War II Shanghai. The audience get a good visual sense of the cosmopolitan characteristics of the city and in fact, even its delights, like its bars and casinos, compare favorably with those in other modern cities. The acting in this film deserves commendation. Though I am not much of a John Cusack fan, I found his performance believable and not overdone. Li Gong and Yun Fat-Chow are also well cast. Their demeanor came across as natural. I would recommend this film to anyone without reservation.