2010 · drama · thriller · mystery
Shanghai
Directed by Mikael Håfström1h 45m2010
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.
Our read: Shanghai (2010) reads as a sombre, kinetic, grounded drama · thriller · mystery entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.
Sombre, kinetic, measured drama / thriller, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold.
- sombre
- cold
Watching Shanghai tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
More info & search links
How Shanghai feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want wartime noir intrigue with Cusack unraveling a friend's murder.”
Skip it tonight — You expect a polished mystery; this one feels unfinished and murky.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Shanghai, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →