Period piece. War time. American paul soames (cusack) is in shanghai, tracking down an old friend and co-worker conner. It's all bad news. The japanese are slowly moving into all parts of china. Just before pearl harbor. Local big shot anthony lan-ting (chow yun-fat) seems to be calling the shots. Co-stars gong li, david morse, ken watanabe, franka potente. Really good spy intrigue. And some of the alliances surprise. Soames is quite the ladies man, and the locals don't appreciate it. Directed by swedish mikael hafstrom. Written by hossein amini. It's very well done!

I saw this English Language film dubbed into Chinese with English subtitles on an import DVD from Chinatown.

The film stars John Cusack as an American spy in 1941 Shanghai. He's arrived from Berlin to meet up with a good friend, whom he soon learns has been murdered in the Japanese sector of the city. As the threat of war becomes less threat and more real Cusack must try and figure out what his friend was working on before it's too late.

Huge sprawling epic that's the sort of things that they don't make any more. This is an action soap opera at it's finest. Its a wonderful popcorn film that undoubtedly looks great on the big screen. Made with an international market in mind it has a great cast with Gong Li, Chow Yun Fat, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Ken Wantanabe all strutting their stuff. Sadly I can't see this becoming a huge hit in the US, not because it isn't good, more because American audiences don't know what to make of films like this.

For the most part this is enjoyable in the way that the wartime films of the 1940's are. They are some what predictable, some times surprising and purely contrived in the plotting. The plotting's twists toward in the last half hour is where the film kind of skids since its connection to Pearl Harbor, and some character motivation, is a bit too much to ask.

Its a fun guilty pleasure thats worth a look see. I don't know if you need to pay full price to see it in a theater (then again this is a great looking film, but at the same time if you like this sort of epic drama try it on cable.

As for me I can't wait to see how this plays in English.

The subject matter is interesting. There is suspense and action and romance. Too bad it didn't get a bigger box office release and reception. Some slight imperfections are there.

The cast is good. All top notch Asian actors. Chow and Watanabe add stature. Gong Li is alluring if a little older. Cusack is a bit goofy looking but blends in to the scenes well. Heard Johnny Depp was interested probably would have been worse.

The sets are bit too theatrical and lacked a little on location feel.

The story is feel good old fashioned adventure romance and not irritating. Sometimes it was hard to catch some of the dialog and because of that got a bit lost.

Overall worth watching.