FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Shanghai Kiss [DVD] [2007]

Shanghai Kiss [DVD] [2007]
enlarge	Directors: David Ren, Kerin Konwiser Actors: Ken Leung, Hayden Panettiere, Kelly Hu, Joel David Moore, Byron Mann Studio: Icon Home Entertainment Category: DVD List Price: ~~£12.99~~ Buy New: £0.99 as of 21/11/2009 18:58 GMT details You Save: £12.00 (92%) New (15) Used (13) from £0.52 Seller: cddvdtrader Rating: 45 reviews Sales Rank: 49849 Format: PAL Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 106 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5051429101408 ASIN: B0018SHUDS Theatrical Release Date: 2007 Release Date: July 28, 2008 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next » A Beautiful Movie About Love And Identity June 27, 2008 Steven Stewart (steveo.stewart@hotmail.co.uk) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful I chose this movie as it starred Hayden Panettiere and I've become a fan of her acting from her role as Clare in the hit TV series Heroes. I have to admit that I didn't expect much, I expected a low budget movie with very little acting talent (with the exception of Hayden Leung of course.) I was extremely surprised as I was given much, much more than I had expected. I was given a love movie that set the standard for which all other movies should try to aim for, it was intelligent, funny and heartwarming. The characters were believable and portrayed those who faced a genuine struggle, not only with their heart but with their identity; at least that's the struggle that faces Ken Leungs character, Liam Liu. br / br /The story revolves around a struggling American Asian actor called Liam Liu, one day after being rejected from an audition for a toothpaste commercial he's forced to ride the bus home as his car was towed due to unpaid parking tickets. While on the bus he meets a flirty, sweet and intelligent teenager called Adelaide and they quickly become friends but although "Addy" looks at Liam as her Boyfriend he doesn't feel that way, or at least he thinks he doesn't. One day he receives a call from his alcoholic Father to inform him that his grandmother has died and left him her $500,000 house in Shanghai. He goes over there with the intention of selling the house, but while there he falls in love with the house and a new girl called Micki Yang. While living in China he discovers more about his true culture and identity that he ever thought he would, but he can't help but feel that his heart is still in the USA with Addy. br / br /I absolutely loved this movie and I'm glad I gave it a chance, if you've never heard of it before or you're not the type of person to check out a pretty unknown movie then please take my strong recommendation for this one as you wont be disappointed. What a kiss! August 13, 2008 McColey (Buckinghamshire) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful This was a great film, never a dull moment. The storyline was excellent with a few 'unexpected' moments that seem to be lacking in modern films. The length was just right and it was a nice straight forward easy to follow movie! No 'who was that again?' confused moments! I don't often give films 5 stars because you can always do better, but with this one I have to say... it really was almost as good as it gets. That little bit different June 25, 2008 J (Liverpool, UK) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful The title, the DVD cover and synopsis- all suggested to me that `Shanghai Kiss' would be yet another implausible and slightly nauseous Hollywood romcomdrama with a clichéd attempt at exploring the predictable culture clash likely to result as the underage all-American girl and the twenty-something guy of Chinese descent meet and fall in love. Even when the film began I didn't connect with the story and I really wondered about the casting, especially of Ken Leung who at first didn't appear to have either the charisma or acting ability necessary to carry the leading man role. But just a few more minutes into the film and I was surprised to find myself completely won over. br / br /The independent-film style direction is nothing cutting-edge, but it's measured and competent and allows the actors to be improvisational with the material and results in some moving moments between characters, as they deliver lines from a script that is much better than the average for a film of this type. *I guarantee this isn't a film that'll have you grating your teeth together from cringe-worthy dialogue. The scene in Shanghai between Liam and a cab driver I thought was particularly funny, while the one in which he reveals the tragedy of his early family life to Micki (Kelly Hu) is low-key, yet powerful. In that way I think just the right balance is struck between comedy and drama, largely thanks to the versatility of Leung's performance. The plot is nothing you couldn't scribble on the back of a napkin, but the dialogue allows the characters to develop into people whose experiences are not so out-there that you'd find it difficult imagining them existing in the real world. The film works because you believe Liam as the out-of-his-depth Chinese-American with little concept of what it means to be either. br / br /The one thing I'd say about this film to anyone considering renting/buying it is that it isn't the mainstream, predictably sweet, box-ticking movie everything about the promotional material leads you to believe it'll be. It's not earth shattering, but neither is it yet another one of those generic genre-specific movies that we've all seen three thousand and forty eight times before. I guess my opinion differs from the majority of other reviewers, who weren't as impressed, but sometimes I like nothing more in a movie than to simply be interested in the subject matter, engaged by the characters, even when there aren't a multitude of exhilarating action sequences, surprising plot developments and tearful admissions of undying love. Sometimes it's enough just to sit down and watch a film that's a little bit different from the norm. OMG Claire swears! June 26, 2008 W. Nelson (UK) 1 out of 2 found this review helpful This is a far from perfect "spiritually finding yourself" kind of film. It's sort of Lost in Translation but Bill Murray's character is a young deadbeat wannabe actor, of chinese ethnicity (played by the spiky mutant from X-men 3), who is already friends with Scalett Johansson's character (here played by Claire from Heroes). br / br /Hayden Panettiere really does a good job of lifting the scenes she's in but the same can't be said for Ken Leung, who plays most of the film deadpan - but that's just the way the character is, essentially emotionally dead inside. br / br /There was a bit of a missed opportunity with the filming in China because while there were plenty of shots of tall buildings and bright lights there were just too few scenes to show just how different Chinese society is. br / br /Overall this wasn't the formula teen comedy drama I was expecting, it's actually a fairly thoughtful and well-intentioned film with some plot holes and deadends but it's actually rather charming. In a bygone age this is the sort of film the young Jimmy Stewart might have tackled, but with somewhat less partial nudity and swearing. Touching and intelligent drama about cultural identity June 30, 2008 Martin Turner (Marlcliff, Warwickshire, England) This is the story of an out of work Chinese actor in Los Angeles who hooks up with a pretty 16 year old, shortly before discovering that he has inherited his grandmother's house in Shanghai. He travels to Shanghai intending to sell it, but finds the price is drastically below what he expected. While there for just three days, he falls in love with a Chinese girl, and realises that, for the first time, he is at home in China, where he is not 'a Chinese guy', but 'just a guy'. He goes back to the USA, breaks it off with the American girl, and returns to Shanghai intending to start his life again there. But in Shanghai, the boyfriend of his new love has him beaten up, and tells him to return to the USA. He then realises that he is not home in either world, and decides to sell the house and go back to LA. At the last minute he once again rescinds the sale, transferring the title instead to the Chinese girl, so that she will no longer have to marry her abusive boyfriend in order to support her family. Back in the USA, he realises what he had in the American girl, tries to patch it up, and the film ends with a rebeginning to their relationship. More importantly, he is reconciled with his father, who he now learns gave up a great deal in order that his son could be born in the USA, and hence be eligible to be president. br / br /You've probably gathered that this is not a Jackie Chan style martial arts adventure, nor yet one of the colour-laden epics of ancient China. It's the kind of thing you might have seen if you watched a lot of late night BBC2 in the days when they still showed foreign films -- except, for all its beautifully observed Chinese-ness, this film is in English. br / br /This is a visually restrained film, avoiding most of the opportunities to showcase either LA or Shanghai, and instead weaving its finely observed story of moderate emotion in many confined spaces. The focus is on the actors - Ken Leung (X-men), Hayden Penettiere (the Cheer Leader in Heroes) and Kelly Hu (Scorpion King), who eschew their own potential for eye-candy to bring a set of mature performances which belie their years. br / br /I really liked this film, which sets out better than any I have seen the half-world of second-generation immigrants, who feel alienated both from the country of their birth and the country of their ancestry. It's also a fascinating glimpse of modern Shanghai, and the tensions of metropolitan life in post-revolutionary China. br / br /At the same time, this is not a grand-exposé of the mesh of modern life, and, in truth, the plot, though finely observed, is quite slight. This is an intellectually and emotionally challenging film, though on a fairly small scale. Something for when you want to gently chew over what you have watched, not for an evening of rom-com or martial arts entertainment. Showing reviews 1-5 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next »

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