A '40s period piece which revolves around an American expat who returns to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor due to the death of his friend.A '40s period piece which revolves around an American expat who returns to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor due to the death of his friend.A '40s period piece which revolves around an American expat who returns to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor due to the death of his friend.
Kowit Wattanakul
- Junk Captain
- (as Kovit Wattanakul)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe project was set to roll in early 2008 in China, but the authorities blocked the shoot just a few weeks before production was set to begin. China's exit meant walking away from sets that had been built, at a cost of three million dollars. The Weinstein Company shifted the shoot to London and Thailand, where sets have been built re-creating Shanghai's old colonial architecture.
- GoofsPart of the plot of the film revolves around the Type 91 torpedo, and the fact that it was given to the Imperial Japanese Navy by the Germans. Although the Type 91 was a real and highly effective aerial torpedo in use by the IJN during World War II - it was used with devastating effect at Pearl Harbour - it was not a German design. It was developed by the Japanese themselves back in 1931, and went through various modifications and improvements until its use in World War II, including the addition of wooden stabilising fins for use in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbour. It also doesn't make much sense for the Japanese to only get the weapon two months before launching their attack, because that would have given no time for further development and modification for Japanese torpedo bombers, or for training pilots in its use. Historically, there actually was a real exchange of aerial torpedo technology between Germany and Japan, but it was in the opposite direction and only in 1942. The Germans had no good aerial torpedoes of their own, having previously bought ones from Italy. The Japanese sent some examples of the Type 91 to Germany via submarine, where the German version entered service designated as 'Lufttorpedo LT 850'.
- Quotes
Paul Soames: Conner and I had joined the Navy like our fathers and grandfathers before us. Our lives were set. Birth, school, Yale, war. The great American tradition.
- SoundtracksLindy Matic
Composed and Arranged by Stephen Edwards
Courtesy Source in Sync Music - provided by 5 Alarm Music
Featured review
Spycraft is so much more meaningful when you do it for a dame
We've seen this in spy movies before: men do things because it is their duty, for whatever reason they feel it is, until they meet a woman. Then it all goes haywire. Most of the time, people love this kind of script and when you have the cast that you have: Cusack, Chow, Watanabe, Morse, Morgan, you expect to love a good old fashioned spy movie that also teaches about the period before the Japanese entering the second world war. Asian sensibilities in the romantic noir period: win!
However, the biggest sin of the movie was, believe it or not, the editing. John Cusack is not a fantastic actor, but he is good enough. Ken Watanabe is always good, no matter what kind of movie you cast him in, and all of David Morse, Yun-Fat Chow and Jeffrey Dean Morgan had marginal roles, yet well acted. However the editing of the material was horrendous, to the point where you didn't actually get what the movie was about, who was who and what were they doing. For Western audiences that do not know the history in the region - as myself - would be especially difficult to understand where the plot is going and what are the different factions and what their goals are.
I wanted to like the movie, a detective noir about spies in Shanghai before the Japanese declaration of war and the reasons why Americans might not have found out in time about the Pearl Harbor attack: women! :) but it didn't work out that way. Instead it felt a little bit like another bit of Asian/Cusack melange: Dragon Blade, which was just as epic and just as clumsy a production.
However, the biggest sin of the movie was, believe it or not, the editing. John Cusack is not a fantastic actor, but he is good enough. Ken Watanabe is always good, no matter what kind of movie you cast him in, and all of David Morse, Yun-Fat Chow and Jeffrey Dean Morgan had marginal roles, yet well acted. However the editing of the material was horrendous, to the point where you didn't actually get what the movie was about, who was who and what were they doing. For Western audiences that do not know the history in the region - as myself - would be especially difficult to understand where the plot is going and what are the different factions and what their goals are.
I wanted to like the movie, a detective noir about spies in Shanghai before the Japanese declaration of war and the reasons why Americans might not have found out in time about the Pearl Harbor attack: women! :) but it didn't work out that way. Instead it felt a little bit like another bit of Asian/Cusack melange: Dragon Blade, which was just as epic and just as clumsy a production.
helpful•40
- siderite
- Sep 15, 2015
- How long is Shanghai?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Şangay
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $50,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $46,425
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $26,604
- Oct 4, 2015
- Gross worldwide
- $15,302,850
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content