ShanghaI

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Violence    Drug Use    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens October 2, 2015

Runs 105 minutes

John Cusack is Paul Soames, an undercover Naval Intelligence Officer who is summoned to Shanghai during the Japanese occupation leading up to America's entrance into WWII. His best friend Conner (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has been killed and Paul must try to determine who killed him and why. Of course, this is tricky since Japan has taken over most of China and it is difficult to tell where people's loyalties really lie. Along the way, he meets Anna (Gong Li) the wife of Anthony Lan-Ting (Chow Yun-Fat), a shady player in Shanghai. He is smitten with her, but she is caught in the middle of supporting her husband and watching out for her own best interests. Can Paul discover who killed his best friend amongst all of the corruption and shady dealings happing in Shanghai at the height of the War? Can he rescue Anna?

This was a decent espionage type movie. Everyone is looking out for themselves and it is a little complicated keeping all of the characters straight. Who is Chinese and who is Japanese and who is double-crossing who? But, it definitely keeps you interested. I thought the casting was great and the sets looked pretty real considering that it was all filmed on a soundstage. This movie was made several years ago and has just been released in the U.S. That usually means that it is not a great film. And, it isn't great, But, it is well-acted and good enough. I probably need to watch it again just to pick up on some of the sub-plots that I probably missed. But, overall a decent movie that might be worth a matinee, especially if you like historical type films. 

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