Shanghai (2008 film)
Encyclopedia
Shanghai is a mystery thriller film directed by Mikael Håfström
Mikael Håfström
Jan Mikael Håfström , known as Mikael Håfström, is a Swedish screenwriter and director.-Biography:Håfström directed the exorcism thriller The Rite, which is based on a novel from Matt Baglio.- Filmography :...

, starring John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

 and Gong Li
Gong Li
Gong Li is a Chinese film actress. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping to bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States....

. The film was first released to cinemas in China
Proc
Proc may refer to:* proc filesystem, a special file system in Unix-like operating systems for accessing process information* ALGOL 68#proc: Procedures* Proč, a village in eastern Slovakia...

 on June 17, 2010.

Plot

In the months leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

, an American agent from the Naval Intelligence Office
Office of Naval Intelligence
The Office of Naval Intelligence was established in the United States Navy in 1882. ONI was established to "seek out and report" on the advancements in other nations' navies. Its headquarters are at the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Suitland, Maryland...

 (Cusack) arrives in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 to find his friend (who is also an agent) Conner recently murdered. Determined to find out who killed Conner and why, he begins working at the Herald using the alias Paul Soames, a Nazi-sympathizer cover he used while stationed in Berlin. He meets Anthony Lan-Ting (an influential crime lord) and Captain Tanaka at the German Consulate during an invitation only event. He later befriends Anthony when he saves Anthony during an attack on Japanese officers by the Chinese Resistance at a night club.

Paul realizes that it was Mrs. Lan-Ting who actually organized the attack and 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 and after searching her place, Paul 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
Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga
Kaga was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy , named after the former Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture...

.

Unconvinced that Sumiko betrayed Conner, he determines to find the girl and get the answers he seeks. After a few more encounters with Mrs. Lan-Ting, Anthony Lan-Ting, Captain Tanaka, and investigating at 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 gets interrogated by Captain Tanaka regarding the whereabouts of Sumiko, whose location he does not know. After being released, Mrs. Lan-Ting takes Paul to a safe house where she has been hiding Sumiko, who was on the verge of death due to withdrawal from opium and possibly other illnesses.

Outside, Mr. Lan-Ting arrives with Captain Tanaka and this confirms all of Tanaka's suspicions, but this is the only way to save Mrs. Lan-Ting. 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 Conner and Sumiko. After Sumiko dies, everyone gets ready to leave, but Tanaka wants to question Mrs. Lan-Ting which infuriates Mr. Lan-Ting who guns down Tanaka's bodyguards and seriously wounds Tanaka himself. Before he can kill Tanaka, Mr. Lan-Ting 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, Mr. Lan-Ting asks Paul to take Mrs. Lan-Ting out of Shanghai, which he successfully does. Before getting on the ship, Paul and Mrs. Lan-Ting encounter Tanaka once again, but Tanaka decides not to acknowledge them, perhaps because Paul spared his life. It is revealed later that both Paul and Mrs. Lan-Ting, at some point, returned to Shanghai.

Cast

  • John Cusack
    John Cusack
    John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...

     as Paul Soames
  • Gong Li
    Gong Li
    Gong Li is a Chinese film actress. Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping to bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States....

     as Anna Lan-Ting
  • Chow Yun-fat
    Chow Yun-Fat
    Chow Yun-fat, SBS is an actor from Hong Kong. He is best known in Asia for his collaboration with filmmaker John Woo in heroic bloodshed genre films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled; and to the West for his role as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...

     as Anthony Lan-Ting
  • Jeffrey Dean Morgan
    Jeffrey Dean Morgan
    Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an American actor, best known to television and movie audiences as Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, patriarch John Winchester on Supernatural, and as The Comedian in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen....

     as Connor
  • Ken Watanabe
    Ken Watanabe
    is a Japanese stage, film, and television 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 nominated for the Academy Award for Best...

     as Captain Tanaka
  • Rinko Kikuchi
    Rinko Kikuchi
    , born , January 6, 1981, is a Japanese actress. Kikuchi is the first Japanese actress to be nominated for an Academy Award in 50 years. She is currently Japan's only living female Academy Award nominee in acting categories...

     as Sumiko
  • David Morse
    David Morse (actor)
    David Bowditch Morse is an American stage, television, and film actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988...

     as Richard Astor
  • Franka Potente
    Franka Potente
    Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...

     as Leni
  • Hugh Bonneville
    Hugh Bonneville
    Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...

     as Ben Sanger
  • Andy On
    Andy On
    Andy On Chi-kit is a Chinese American actor and martial artist.-Biography:On was born on 11 May 1977, in Providence, Rhode Island. As a native to the USA, Andy On can speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese...

     as Yum
  • Race Wong
    Race Wong
    Race Wong Yuen-Ling is a Hong Kong actress and a member of the Hong Kong-based Cantopop music group 2R alongside her sister Rosanne Wong. She is now a Singaporean resident.She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, English.-Album:...

     as Cabaret Performer
  • Rosanne Wong
    Rosanne Wong
    Rosanne Wong is the member of a Hong Kong cantopop music group 2R alongside younger sister Race Wong.She was born in Malaysia and moved to Singapore with her family at a very young age...

     as Cabaret Performer
  • Gemma Chan
    Gemma Chan
    Gemma Chan is an English actress and former model. She is best known for playing Mia Bennett in the BBC's Doctor Who "The Waters of Mars" with David Tennant and Lindsay Duncan; Soo Lin in Sherlock, the modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes for BBC One with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin...

     as Shin Shin
  • Benedict Wong
    Benedict Wong
    Benedict Wong is an English actor and comedian.Wong was born in Manchester and attended school in Salford. His first role was in a 1993 BBC Radio play called Kai Mei Sauce, written by Kevin Wong. He appeared alongside Sean Lock in the situation comedy 15 Storeys High, and as Dr. Franklin Fu in the...

     as Juso Kita
  • 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 Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, however, due to the controversial time period in which the film is set, the Weinstein Company's permits were revoked by the Chinese government one week prior to the scheduled start of filming. Thus, the film crew had to relocate to Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

, Thailand, where an elaborate two-block set was built. The movie's Chinese female star, Gong Li, said it was "bigger and more beautiful" than the sets in China, and that "everything exceeded our imagination... all the movies set in Shanghai in the future can shoot here."
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