Shanghai 2009

Last night I was invited to a movie premiere of the new John Cusack film “Shanghai.” It was actually really good. My friend Justin and I got tickets to it as we were walking around union sq. This guy approached us and asked us if we wanted to go to a special screening and help review a movie. I was all over it and excited. He told us that its still in the making, there needs to be editing done, and music still, and things still added in and cut out, and they need to know audience opinions.

Doing some research on my own, I found out that the movie was Mikael Håfström, a Swedish director who has done some American films, like derailed, but mostly foreign cinema. It had Jeffery Dean Morgan (The Comedian from Watchmen), Yun-Fat Chow (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), Li Gong (Memoirs of a Geisha) and David Morse (Killer in Disturbia, bad cop in 16 Blocks). It was overall a good movie to watch. I wouldn’t say excellent, but well.

The plot was hard for me to follow, especially since going in I didn’t know anything about the movie. From what I have gathered, the plot is a WW2 drama. It takes place right before America joins the war and Japan attacks China and Pearl Harbor. John Cusack and Jeffery Dean Morgan are spies for America in Shanghai trying to figure out what Japan is doing there and what’s going on with the war. (I didn’t figure out that they were spies until the end of the movie) John Cusacks cover up is a journalist, and through out the movie he kicks a lot of ass. I was shocked because I didn’t think a journalist could be so bad ass, and then I found out he was actually a spy and it made a little more sense. Anyways, Morgan gets involved with the Japans army commanders mistress and gets wind of attack plans on Pearl Harbor. He passes it on to Cusack who tries to gather enough evidence to prove it to his superiors so that they can be prepared for an attack on Pearl Harbor. He gets involved with the Mafia leader played by Yun-Fat Chow, and his wife played by Li Gong and together/secretly/behind backs figure out what Japan and Germany are up too.

It was surprisingly action packed. I thought it was going to be a long drugged out drama with lots of romance scenes. It was really clean. No foul language, no boobies, and minor drug usage. It was an action drama movie. It was not excellent by any means, it was just a good overall film. It had some flaws, but then again I saw not a whole finished version. My only beef was John Cusack playing this bad ass spy which was hard for me to grasp because he usually plays writers in his films, or some heart broken guy who can’t find love, but then does at the end. My favorite thing about the movie though was the scenery in it. Shanghai looks sweet. They had good fighting scenes, and I thought that Yun-Fat Chow did awesome and Li Gong did even better.

I would recommend to see this movie or rent it. Not really a buy movie though. Not something I would exactly want to see twice. I usually don’t like to see long war dramas more than once, expect like classic ones (Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Full metal jacket, etc...) So over all I would give it a strong 2.8 out of 5. That’s a fair rating. I wasn’t bored in the movie, I was mostly trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

I should clarify, though this movie has great actors, the fighting in it is with guns, and it’s a one shot your dead deal. The cinematography in it is beautiful, and has some amazing shots of Shanghai in it. It really does make you want to go visit the city and see the beauty of it. Though Gong is looked upon as a sex symbol who cheats on her husband, she does show herself as a true actress by the way she deeply cares for her country. The costumes in this movie are nothing special to be honest. Shanghai was a city in China that was very westernized. Most of the men in this wear suits or Navy outfits, and the women wore dresses. The dresses had some style and class, like Gong for example wears many different beautiful outfits, but nothing i would expect to be nominated in for an award.

k so i posted a new paragraph to my blog post. I am new to this, so i enjoy everyones helpful feed back. Please continue to let me know what else you would like to know about the film and i will try to add it in my post. It has been very helpful to know your opinions on my writing and what you think i should have included. Sadly Hardy, this movie portrays Gong as a sex object, but she still does amazing in this film. And Gong and Cusack dont really get it on, sorry kill bill. And Whosmurry, i haven't seen every Cusack film, but more so than not he usually is not portrayed as a killer in his movies.

Answering other questions about the movie, Wantanbe and Gong do have some scenes together. Wantanbe is a Japanese Military Commander, and close friends with Chow Yun Fat. Most of the Chinese hate the Japanese at this period, and Gong leads a group of rebels that tries to kill off powerful Japanese leaders in Shanghai. So there are scenes where she tries to kill him, and towards the end he tries to kidnap her. But other than that, there is no amazing dialogue between the two. Chow does love his wife in this movie, even though he has many mistresses. They get along, but they don’t trust each other. But when it comes down it, Chow does kill for her, and does fight for her honor. He respects her as a wife in the sense that he confides her in a lot of things. I don’t get why he cheats on her so much, and why she cheats on him. They have very open and understanding marriage that works for them. Chow and Gong both do good speaking english in this film. Chow did better than Gong, but Gong was alright. Her words were not difficult to understand, though she did speak slow most of the time. I think maybe a couple of times i leaned over to my friend to ask what she just said. I would perfer all movies to be in subtitles to be understood better. But overall, i her chiense accent while speaking english wasnt something that stood out to me as bad what so ever, but when i honestly thought about it, it could use some improvement. Its not like i walked out saying "what the hell was up with that chick who could barely speak english" I came out instead saying " So John Cusack was a spy?"

As for other characters in the movie, like Franka Potente who played the German Spy, Cusack, Gong and Fat do a stellar job. Pontente wasn’t that impressive to me. First off, she has a huge jaw that distracted me through out the movie. She had a small role and was not in the movie all that much. Her character was in love with Cusack, and it affected her work as a spy. But she honestly wasn’t anything to impressive. Rinko Kikuchi did alright, though she played a character of a drugged out addicted opium mistress/whore. She didnt have much of a big role in this film, nor did she have many lines in it. She is the girl that everyone is trying to find, protect and fight for. She knew everything that one American spy had told her, and she knew everything that the Japanese commander had told her. I am more excited to see her in "The Brothers Bloom" where she has much more of a bigger role.