SHANGHAI BLU-RAY (Region A) (NTSC) Chow Yun Fat, Gong Li, John Cusack, Ken Watanabe (2010)

"Shanghai" is set in the exotic background of China's great international city of Shanghai--the "Paris of the East"-on the brink of Japanese takeover in the weeks leading up to Pearl Harbor. It seems to have been filmed mostly in Thailand, but with CGI and a great ensemble cast headed by John Cusack, Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe, it convincingly recreates Shanghai in 1941. Viewers familiar with Shanghai's wonderful heritage-listed architecture in the Waitan-Bund area, and the former international concessions, will see much that they recognise.

This may be the highest standard and most entertaining international movie production set in Shanghai in the inter-world war era since Spielberg's Empire of the Sun [Blu-ray]. It is a pity that the production could not resolve issues with the Chinese authorities, who at the last minute revoked permission to complete the production in China. It is unclear whether this was due to China's difficulties confronting historical and fictional depiction of its painful past, or some other causes. In any case, the film is listed for release in China.

The success of the film in recreating an impression of old Shanghai seems to owe much to the vision of producer Mike Medavoy, who was born in Shanghai in 1941. It is a romantic spy story, based on a credible premise that people with their wits about them in Shanghai in 1941 might have picked up intelligence about Japanese intentions to attack Pearl Harbor. The premise of the plot is especially credible because, as other folk with an interest in Chinese history will know, the Imperial Japanese Navy used aircraft carriers in both the "January 28 Incident" (Shanghai War of 1932) and the "Battle of Shanghai" (Aug-Nov 1937). The city was a hotbed of international espionage through the 1930s. By odd and little-known coincidence (maybe maybe not a coincidence), Nomura Kichisaburo Japanese Ambassador to the US when Pearl Harbor was attacked was an IJN admiral with a lot of Shanghai time. He commanded the Japanese forces which attacked Shanghai on 28 January 1932, including the first major aircraft carrier action in the Far East.

The main characters of the film, John Cusack's US Navy intelligence officer, Chow Yun-fat's Shanghai tycoon/crime boss, Gong Li as his wife and a secret Chinese resistance operative, and Ken Watanabe as an astute but conflicted Japanese counter-intelligence officer, are well cast and well played, and appear to be fictional characters drawn partly from composite historical figures. Among the strong supporting cast, Franka Potente has a cameo role as the bored and ignored wife of a German diplomat that is an interesting contrast with her well-known roles in "Run, Lola, Run" and two "Bourne" movies.

The simple title, "Shanghai", for English-language release, relies on the mystique wrapped up in the location name for much of the international audience. The Chinese title is more complicated and colorful: Die Hai Fengyun 谍海风云. The characters literally mean "espionage sea wind cloud", with the second character meaning both "sea" with a hint of the naval intelligence plot, and the second character of the name of Shanghai in Chinese, and the final two characters, being a compound meaning storm, a synonym for "fast-moving situation". The Chinese movie title therefore may be freely translated, unfortunately without the layers of meaning in the Chinese, as "Shanghai Spy Thriller", "Spy Storm In Shanghai" or "Naval espionage in the city on the sea".

The region A Blu-ray release by CN Entertainment is a high-quality video transfer. I found the English soundtrack level a bit low, but this was easily compensated for.

I was first attracted by this movie with the international casting. John Cusack is an actor that seems to show up in all kind of movies and comes out great. In this voice over story telling of an american spy in trouble days of Shangai 1941 when Japan invades China. As explained, China is divided in different sectors which justify the all international casting. Gong Li, David Morse, Franka Potente, Ken Watanabe, Chow Yun-Fat to name a few. The director Mikael Hafström has given a very plausible movie about what it might have been going through these times. Director of photography Benoit Delhomme also as rendered an excellent job of dark days.

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I have a simple rule for reviewing movies, I'll either watch it again or I won't. I would definitely watch this again.

I'd seen this on IMDB and been looking for it for a while. I was happy when I saw it on Amazon and ordered it. When it arrived I got nervous since it came from overseas, I wasn't sure if it would play on my Bluray player or not. I was thrilled when it worked!

Cusack does an incredible job but I'm a big fan of his ever since Better Off Dead.

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