If you're one of those people who owns a region-free disc player and buys all sorts of international movies long before they land stateside, then chances are you already own a copy of Shanghai. Heck, you can buy it right here from our site. Others may recall the 2010 film starring John Cusack, Chow Yun-Fat, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Franka Potente was supposed to have opened in the U.S. a couple of years later, or at least that's what Harvey Weinstein promised. It never happened, but suddenly the film has been stamped with a release date only a couple of weeks away, and a new trailer to go along with it.
So was the five-year wait worth it? Maybe, maybe not. Directed by Mikael Hafstrom (1408), the WWII-era drama centers on an American Naval Intelligence Officer (Cusack) who goes to Shanghai to investigate the murder of his friend (Morgan), and to do it he goes undercover Nazi sympathizer. Crime lords and rebel factions complicate the investigation, along with a romantic fling with a gangster's wife (Gong Li) who happens to be leader of the resistance. Lots going on here, that's for sure. Too much by the looks of it, but definitely doesn't appear to be a disaster by any stretch.
Shanghai opens on August 21st.
