Shanghai

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.

One of those movies when watching that I am not thrilled, but enjoying it enough to not stop half way through

So dont expect greatness and you could have an enjoyable experience.

The good: great actors are starring in it. It is beautifully photographed. The story is enticing.

The bad: it simply is lacking greatness. It's just....not there. Still an enjoyable watch!

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

The subject matter is interesting. There is suspense and action and romance. Too bad it didn't get a bigger box office release and reception. Some slight imperfections are there.

The cast is good. All top notch Asian actors. Chow and Watanabe add stature. Gong Li is alluring if a little older. Cusack is a bit goofy looking but blends in to the scenes well. Heard Johnny Depp was interested probably would have been worse.

The sets are bit too theatrical and lacked a little on location feel.

The story is feel good old fashioned adventure romance and not irritating. Sometimes it was hard to catch some of the dialog and because of that got a bit lost.

Overall worth watching.

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.