''Shanghai'' is a 2010 American

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

thriller film directed by

Mikael Håfström Jan Mikael Håfström is a Swedish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2003 film ''Evil'', and the movie adaptation of Stephen King's short story ''1408''. Early life Born in Lund, Sweden, Mikael Håfström studied film a ...

, starring

John Cusack John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...

and

Gong Li Gong Li ( Chinese: 巩俐; born 31 December 1965) is a Chinese actress. She starred in three of the four Chinese-language films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Gong was born in Shenyang, Liaonin ...

. The film was released in China on June 17, 2010. The film had a limited release in the United States on October 2, 2015, to negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office.

Plot

In December 1941, just before the entry of the United States into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, an American agent from the Naval Intelligence Office (Cusack) arrives in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

to find his friend Conner (

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Jeffrey Dean Morgan (born April 22, 1966) is an American actor of television and film, best known for playing the character Negan in the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' (2016–2022), for which he has received critical acclaim. He ...

) was recently murdered. Determined to find out who killed Conner and why, he begins working at ''The Herald'' newspaper using the alias Paul Soames, a Nazi-sympathizer cover he used while stationed in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He meets Anthony Lan-Ting (

Chow Yun-Fat Chow Yun-fat (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: '' A Better Tomorrow'', '' A ...

), an influential crime lord, and Captain Tanaka (

Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in '' Letters from Iwo Jima'' and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in ''The Last Samurai'', for which he was nomi ...

) at the German embassy in Shanghai, during an invitation-only event. He later befriends Anthony when he saves him during an attack on Japanese officers by the Chinese Resistance at a night club. Paul realizes that Anthony's wife, Anna (

), organized the attack and is the leader of the resistance. He then decides to help her pass on messages. After finally meeting up with Conner's contact in the Japanese Consulate, Paul finds out that Conner had an affair with a Japanese girl named Sumiko (

Rinko Kikuchi (born ; January 6, 1981) is a Japanese actress. She was the first Japanese actress to be nominated for an Academy Award in 50 years, for her work in ''Babel'' (2006). Kikuchi's other notable films include '' Norwegian Wood'' (2010), which s ...

) and after searching her home, uncovers numerous photos, which Conner took, in a darkroom nearby. Some of the photos include Captain Tanaka, other Japanese officers and the aircraft carrier ''Kaga''. Unconvinced that Sumiko betrayed Conner, he determines to find her and get answers. After a few more encounters with Anna, Anthony, Captain Tanaka, and investigating an opium house, Paul realizes that Sumiko was Captain Tanaka's lover and was seduced by Conner to spy for him. Paul's cover is blown when Conner's contact is arrested, and Paul is interrogated by Captain Tanaka regarding the whereabouts of Sumiko, whose location he does not know. After being released, Anna takes Paul to a safe house where she has been hiding Sumiko, who is on the verge of death due to opium withdrawal and other illnesses. Anthony gives Captain Tanaka the location of the safe house to save Anna from arrest; inside the safe house, Tanaka informs Paul that the Japanese fleet started attacking Pearl Harbor one hour earlier and that the invasion of Shanghai is also underway. Tanaka admits to killing Conner, but only out of jealousy as he found out about his affair with Sumiko. A distraught Tanaka then asks for Paul's help in administering drugs to ease Sumiko's death. After Sumiko dies, everyone prepares to leave, but Tanaka wants to question Anna which infuriates Anthony, causing him to gun down Tanaka's bodyguards and seriously wound Tanaka himself. Before he can kill Tanaka, Anthony is fatally wounded by a dying bodyguard. Leaving behind a wounded Tanaka, Paul drives the Lan-Tings away through the burning streets of Shanghai and with his last words, Anthony asks Paul to get Anna out of Shanghai, which he agrees to. Before getting on a ship to leave the city, Paul and Anna encounter Tanaka once again, but Tanaka does not acknowledge them. It is revealed later that both Paul and Anna, at some point, returned to Shanghai.

Cast

as Paul Soames *

as Anna Lan-Ting *

Chow Yun-fat Chow Yun-fat (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: '' A Better Tomorrow'', '' A ...

as Anthony Lan-Ting *

as Conner *

as Captain Tanaka (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 陸軍大尉田中, ''Rikugun-Tai-i Tanaka'') *

as Sumiko *

David Morse David Bowditch Morse (born October 11, 1953) is an American actor, singer, television director, and writer. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in the medical drama series '' St. Elsewhere'' (1982–88). His film c ...

as Richard Astor *

Franka Potente Franka Potente (; born 22 July 1974) is a German actress. She first appeared in the comedy film '' After Five in the Forest Primeval'' (1995), for which she won a Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Actress. Her breakthrough came in 1998, when sh ...

as Leni Müller *

Hugh Bonneville Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams (born 10 November 1963) is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series ''Downton Abbey''. His performance on the show earned him a no ...

as Ben Sanger *

Andy On Andy On () (born May 11, 1977) is an American actor and martial artist. Life and career On was born on May 11, 1977, in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a native of the US, and can speak English, Mandarin, and a bit of Cantonese. Andy On did no ...

as Yum *

Race Wong Race Wong is a Singaporean actress, singer and businesswoman. She was one of the former Hong Kong cantopop duo singer group 2R alongside her elder sister Rosanne Wong. Professional background Born in Malaysia, raised in Singapore, she pursued ...

as Cabaret performer *

Rosanne Wong Rosanne Wong (黃婉君, Wong Yuen-Guan, b. 30 June 1979) is the member of a former Hong Kong cantopop music duo group 2R alongside younger sister Race Wong. Background She was born in Malaysia and moved to Singapore with her family at a very ...

as Cabaret performer *

Gemma Chan Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is an English actress. Born and raised in London, Chan attended the Newstead Wood School for Girls and studied law at Worcester College, Oxford before choosing to pursue a career in acting instead, enrolling at t ...

as Shin Shin *

Benedict Wong Benedict Wong (born 3 July 1971) is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Kublai Khan in Netflix's ''Marco Polo'' (2014–2016), Bruce Ng in '' The Martian'' (2015), and Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since ''Doctor Strange'' (2 ...

as Juso Kita * Christopher Buchholz as Karl Müller *

Ronan Vibert Ronan David Jackson Vibert (23 February 1964 – 22 December 2022) was an English actor who was known for his appearances in films and on British and American television. Early life He was born in Cambridge, on 23 February 1964, the son of Dil ...

as Mikey * Nicholas Rowe as Ralph *Don Tai as Lan-Ting's bodyguard (uncredited) *Dean Alexandrou as Distraught husband (uncredited)

Production

The film was originally intended to be shot on location in

. However, after the controversy resulting from the graphic sexual scenes in

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...

's film ''

Lust, Caution ''Lust, Caution'' () is a 2007 erotic period espionage mystery romance film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1979 novella by Eileen Chang. ''Lust, Caution'' is set in Hong Kong in 1938 and in Shanghai in 1942, when the city was occupied by ...

'', which had just been filmed in Shanghai and was set during the same period,

The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...

's permits were revoked by the Chinese government in April 2008, after three months of pre-production work had been completed in Shanghai and only one week prior to the scheduled start of filming. Thus, the film crew had to relocate to the UK to film interiors and to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, Thailand, where an elaborate two-block set was built.

Reception

''Shanghai'' received negative reviews. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a 4% score, an average rating of 4.2/10, based on 23 reviews. The site's consensus states: "''Shanghai'' is crippled by a weak story and fatally undermined by clunky direction, making for a period political drama that lacks all of its key components." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a score of 36 out of 100, sampled from 14 critics, signifying "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shanghai 2010 films 2010s mystery films 2010s spy films 2010 thriller films 2010s political thriller films 2010s political drama films 2010 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films American political drama films American political thriller films American spy films Films scored by Klaus Badelt Films about death Films directed by Mikael Håfström Films produced by Barry Mendel Films set in 1941 Films set in Shanghai Films shot in Thailand Films set in Thailand Films shot in Bangkok American neo-noir films Phoenix Pictures films Films with screenplays by Hossein Amini Second Sino-Japanese War films