Shanghai WOW!
Added 6/27/2009
Great movie, At first I didn't know if I should get this, But I'm glad I did. This movie has great scenery and good acting.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Dateline's How to catch a Predator?
Added 9/12/2008
This movie is about Liam, a late 20ish Chinese-American male who is struggling to become an actor in LA, CA. On a bus ride home, a 16-year-old High School girl, Adelaide, decides to talk to him and eventually sang a song for him. From there on, there relationship builds through out the movie. He drives her to places, school, movies and she considers him her boyfriend. Despite his protest about them being a couple, yet he continues this weird relationship with her.
Liam receives a call from his father that his grandmother had passed away in Shanghai, China and that she left him her home. Thinking he'll just go there and sell the house and return back to the US. Once he got there, he meets a Chinese girl and falls in love with her. Not alone did he fall in love with her; it's the first time he felt he belongs. He felt normal. Just not another Chinese person but just another person. He thinks about staying after all and returns home to say good-bye to everyone including Adelaide. After awhile, he realize that China is not all its crack up to be and returns back to the states in hope for a shot at getting Adelaide back and find true love.
Being an Asian American who was born in the old country and raise in America. I can understand where he is coming from....the point of not belonging in either "world". Not Asian enough and not American enough due to the skin of my color and the two cultures that I was raised by my family and by my environment. I can also relate about Asian males portray and stereotyped in Hollywood movies. Asian males can never be a lead actor, the guy who gets the girl....blah, blah, blah. For the life of me, I never could understand how Hollywood thinks Asian males can't find a date or that they are undesirable. I never had a problem dating and never once knew any of my friends having a hard time finding a woman.
But what I find about this movie is quite disturbing and creepy at the same time. Liam is pretty much a Pedophile. A Child Predator, the ones that you see in NBC's Dateline "How to catch a Predator". How does one find a late 20ish male with a 16-year-old girl as romantic is beyond me. Anyone think that it's a sweet movie needs to have their heads exam. The only thing waiting for a late 20ish male knocking on my door to go on a date with my 16-year-old daughter is going to get a loaded shotgun pointed at his face.
Yes, finally an Asian male actor finally gets his girl....Ooops....Somehow someone bleeps it up again and makes him a child molester. I don't know about you. But as an Asian male, I rather be stereotyped as an undesirable, sexless guy than a Child molesting Monster.
0 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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I love it!
Added 7/13/2008
It's kinda unrealistic, com on a hot 16 yrs. old blonde girl hit on asian man. But it's all about his sucky life(funny), but all we do just enjoy the movie without complain!
Still it should be a little bit wild!
0 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Pleasant and inoffensive but little more.
Added 7/10/2008
As a 'journey of self-discovery' story, "Shanghai Kiss" feels to take a few false turns along the way from its refreshingly different start to its entirely predictable ending. While there is much about this production to like, with some genuinely funny as well as moving moments, it suffers in the end from its own uncertainty--mounting to a total confusion at times--as to whether to be serious or funny, resulting in it failing to be either most of the time. And while the music is well chosen, and the cinematography, especially the city-scapes of Shanghai, visually stunning, the cast mostly comes over as being capable of stronger performances than either the story or the script permit them to give here. I found it hard to fully engage with any of the main characters and it is somehow ironic that the best performances seem to come from the supporting bit-players, especially those with only a line or two to deliver, simply, I suspect, because these characters have not been given the space in which to "develop" the ambiguities which plague the principals. And which ultimately robs this film of the substance it tries so hard to establish.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Interesting, but not much better than the old Fu Manchu movies...
Added 7/2/2008
Shanghai Kiss weaves the story of a Chinese-American... who feels as though he doesn't fit in, in the US... moves to China (for essentially no real reason - the idea of inheriting his grandmother's house is hard to believe at best)... and then finds out he doesn't fit in there either!
This is the archetypal 'Asian American Identity' story... which I usually don't have a problem with (being Asian American myself), but well the first strike I have against this movie is that the theme is very very over-done.
The story pulls in some interesting twists... Ken Leung (who is awesome) picks up some random chick in a bar (something you never see in Hollywood movies)... But for some reason he's a wimp or something and cries everytime he has sex... (this seems like some perverse stereotyping here).
Then there is the whole 'relationship' between Ken Leung's character and Hayden Panettiere's character. Yes, again it's good that Asian guy can get the girl... but she's a high school kid and he's in his late twenties... but she's the one in control of the relationship (Lolita complex + again with the 'Asian guys are whipped' stereotype)
Finally, once in China, there appears to be a never ending line of prostitutes as well as having Kelly Hu being in a relationship with an "evil Asian guy" just for the money... You know what I'm getting at here...
All in all, the movie gets 2 stars (knocking off one star for each of my gripes). Especially for a movie that is proclaiming to be progressive... I am quite disappointed.
1 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Needs more Action
Added 4/7/2009
I love the actors in this movie, but the story line in not good at all. This movie does not let the actors go to their fullest potential. It was a good movie just not action enough for me. Sung Kang, I really love and Russell Wong, their characters was not used very good and not in the capacity that I am use to seeing them in.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Solid movie
Added 5/5/2008
I was drawn to this film as I am a fan of Kelly Hu's and Russell Wong and found a very pleasant surprise in the talents of Sung Kang . I was not familiar with the works of Sung Kang even though he had been in several movies that I had seen. I will be looking for him in the future. This is a gritty caricature study made on a small budget by a very talented writer director Chris Chan Lee who got fine performances from the entire cast. I look forward to the future works of both Sung Kang and Chris Chan Lee.
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Highly recommended
Added 4/21/2008
It is a stylish movie. I enjoyed this movie a lot because I am a big fan of Sung Kang's, the main character in this movie. You will enjoy the short film called 9:30 came as a bonus feature of this DVD.
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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