An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.
Cinematography
Ben Nott turns 1941 Shanghai into a humid dream you can almost smell.
Costume
Gong Li's qipaos deserve their own billing. Period detail is *chef's kiss*.
Acting
Chow Yun-Fat and Ken Watanabe doing more with silence than the script does with dialogue.
Director
Mikael Håfström
John Cusack
Paul Soames
Gong Li
Anna Lan-Ting
Chow Yun-Fat
Anthony Lan-Ting
Ken Watanabe
Tanaka
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Conner
David Morse
Richard Astor
Franka Potente
Leni Müller
Hugh Bonneville
Ben Sanger
Andy On Chi-Kit
Yum
Race Wong
Cabaret performer
Rosanne Wong
Cabaret performer
Michael Culkin
Billy
Hon Ping Tang
Chen
Benedict Wong
Juso Kita
Christopher Buchholz
Karl Müller
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot partly in Bangkok and London because filming in actual Shanghai proved impossible—explains why the geography feels slightly dreamlike.
The film's delayed 2015 China release (five years after completion) reflects ongoing political sensitivity about depicting Japanese occupation, even critically.
US
