Shanghai (2010)

"Where is she?"

Shanghai attempted to be a noir murder mystery set against the turbulent time leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film boasted famous international stars and faces that would become more familiar. Shifting alliances and spies behind every door made finding a killer when thousands were being killed difficult if not meaningless.

Intelligence officer Paul Soames arrives undercover in Shanghai to meet up with his best friend who is also an agent only to discover that he was recently murdered in the Japanese quarter. He goes to work as a Nazi sympathizing journalist in order to keep his German contacts. Within a short time he makes the acquaintance of a Chinese resistance member who is married to the head of the Shanghai triad who have a tenuous relationship with a Japanese officer. Soames becomes embroiled with all of them and their various activities while searching for the killer.

The murder mystery was honestly hard to care about. The Chinese were suffering astronomical losses due to the Japanese occupation. It didn’t help that John Cusack’s character was bland and uninteresting. His acting was equally uninspiring and lacking in depth. Gong Li was another story. She gave a strong and more nuanced performance as Anna Lan Ting. Her role as a resistance member was far more compelling and the movie would have benefited from focusing on her more instead of forcing the viewer to see nearly everything through Soames’ bored eyes. Chow Yun Fat played a supporting role as Anna’s husband. He did the best with what he could but was sidelined most of the time. Watanabe Ken’s Tanaka walked a fine line between nemesis and sympathetic character. Benedict Wong (Dr. Strange’s Wong!) played a Japanese informant and Hugh Bonneville (Knotting Hill and Downtown Abbey) took on the role of a newspaper editor.

Perhaps Shanghai was trying to do too much or maybe not enough. The film showed another angle of how vital strategic information that could have foreshadowed Pearl Harbor was not forwarded though it was more of an Easter egg than key plot point. The characters’ lives came to coalesce around a Japanese mistress and spy, that ended up being all but irrelevant. The implied chemistry between Anna and Paul simply did not work. Gong Li was believable but John Cusack sucked the life out of every scene he was in.

Shanghai had potential but failed in nearly everything it tried to do. The story and direction weren’t taut enough to be thrilling. The Shanghai matches had more sizzle than the sexual chemistry. And the murder mystery wasn’t much of a mystery. What was worth watching was Gong Li. She was gorgeous and mesmerizing as the mysterious and unwavering Anna. Chow Yun Fat and Watanabe Ken also pulled focus when they were onscreen. And it was fun to see Benedict Wong in an earlier role with that deep gravelly voice of his. Overall, Shanghai was watchable yet equally forgettable.

6 July 2025

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