An eight minute making-of featurette for Mikael Hafstrom's thriller Shanghai has been released on the eve of its premiered held at Beijing today. Most of the video featured the cast & crew talking about the story and the historical climate during the World War II era in Shanghai with a few short clips and on-set footage intersperse through out.
Nothing is what it seems in this Casablanca-style international thriller set in the ancient Chinese city a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. Secret Agent Paul Soames (John Cusack) has just arrived to investigate the murder of his best friend, only to become quickly immersed in a web of conspiracy and lies that beset the city. Shadowed by a Japanese intelligence officer Tanaka (Ken Watanabe), Soames' investigation quickly centers on a charismatic local gangster, Anthony Lanting (Chow Yun-Fat) - and Lanting's beautiful wife, Anna (Gong Li). Before long, Soames and Anna are involved in an affair that will put everything they have at stake. As national loyalties are traded fast-and-loose for those of the heart, Soames and Anna must race to solve the mystery and make it out of occupied China before the city's collapse.The film gets a wide release theatrically in China on June 17th. You'll find the making-of featurette embedded below.
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I think this looks completely brilliant.
Interesting, though I wish they'd just done a lengthy trailer. The waffling was painfully vacant; yeah, it's not about the politics. No, seriously. No, stop laughing. And an outstanding cast? I think you could argue Cusack's dangerously close to turning into Nick Cage, Ken Watanabe's a go-to 'well, no-one will recognise any current Japanese actor' guy, Gong Li's still looking for English-language success and if it wasn't for Confucius Chow Yun-Fat wouldn't be much of a lure. Not to mention some of it strikes me as... a little hard to believe; no-one's ever recreated the port? Seriously?
Still, it's got my attention. Looks like East Wind, Rain with a bigger budget and less obvious focus on propaganda, though we'll see if that's enough to have it turn out the better film. I wonder if it's anything to do with East Wind releasing without English subtitles.
Chow Yun Fat will never be able to shed his prestige from The Killer and Hardboiled. I don't care how many Hollywood comedy flops he churns out.