I recently acquired a movie - Shanghai Kiss. I originally acquired it because Hayden Panittiere is in it. Those who know me knows that I recently abandoned my jacaranda wallpaper for a nice high resolution picture of her. Anyways, I watched Shanghai Kiss last night, and found it to be not bad.

Usually, I don’t review those ‘rediscovering roots’ movie because I find them quite condescending (I wrote three different draft reviews of Saving Face, and threw them out). Also, some of the movies kinda harp a lot on the past, and keeps politicizing racial issues (Anyone remembers Mateen Kemet from On The Lot? Yea, I HATE his type of movies, not to say I hate blacks, but I don’t like the condescending tone of his movie, politicizing blacks vs whites), but I found this movie to be quite different. Quite pleasantly different.

The Plot
The basic premise is simple - a completely whitewashed Chinese-American (what we call bananas - yellow on the outside, white on the inside) is stereotyped in Hollywood in the beginning (you know, with Asians being those who know kung fu and stuff). He gets frustrated, and meets an underaged girl, Adelaide (played by Hayden!!!!). Then his grandmother whom he never knew died and left him a house in Shanghai. He decides to go to Shanghai to sell the house, and along the way, discover his roots, falls in love, etc.

The plot is endearing and should be a textbook example of how romance movies should be - fun. There aren’t many romantic movies out there (ones that are NOT related to Nicholas Spark) that isn’t a comedy. This isn’t one of those lame American romantic comedy. This is actually a watchable romantic movie I watched in quite a while (again, not considering any Nicholas Spark’s money milking movies).

Thought-Provoking
This movie is quite thought-provoking as well. It questions cultural perspective. It questions ethnic identity - it posits questions like ‘what is it like to be ethnically Chinese’. Often times, the main character, Liam Liu is portrayed as a ‘lost’ character. He is a highly moralistic character (who didn’t take advantage of the 16-year-old Adelaide, something I’d find it hard to do myself), and thusly often in conflict with himself.

When Liam decided that America, the place he was born in, was not for him, because in L.A., he’s always the ‘Chinese guy’, but in Shanghai, he’s just ‘a guy’, it echoes the sentiments of a lot of overseas-born Chinese (i.e. those born in predominantly non-Chinese/Asian countries, especially ‘white’ countries like America).

But when he finds out that he doesn’t really fit into Shanghai as well, it too, echoes the sentiments of overseas-born Chinese (this time, though, to those born in predominantly Asian countries that have been exposed to the globalized world, like Singapore or Malaysia)

In short, I do identify with this movie. I have on more than one occasion complained that some of my Asian American friends think I’m waaay too Asian, but my Chinese Chinese (as in Chinese from China) friends think I’m too American/whitewashed/banana. I think myself as an ideal balance of East and West, but this movie does bring up some questions about cultural identity.

At one point in the story, Liam discovers that he’s been pushing aside his Chinese roots all the while, while attempting to ‘fit in’ to L.A’s society. He had denied everything Chinese about him - his culture, his father, etc.

Ironically, when he moved to Shanghai, he did the same to his western habits. In one scene, he was playing chinese chess against some old men, when a caucasian tourist comes by and asks them questions. He pretended that he doesn’t know how to speak English, as an act to re-affirm he’s Chinese.

But in the end, either extreme doesn’t work out for him - neither being wholly ‘Chinese’ nor being ‘American’ works out. A balance ought to be struck. And towards the end, he more or less got the balance.

Despite being an American film, I find it quite critical of American culture too. Or rather, it portrays American culture from the point of view of Asians (like Jai Li said: “You think you Americans can just come and take what you want? Who discovered America? How can [Christopher Columbus] ‘discover’ America when there are already 40 million natives?” ) In those few sentences, he has succintly described the sole backbone of Americana - the land of the free is where you take what you want, without regards to anyone else.

The Good
As I mentioned, the movie is well made. The plot isn’t super contrived, and it’s a straightforward romantic plot. It is a good balance of thought provokingness (is there even such a word?) and plot. This proves that you don’t have to talk like The Architect to provide something thought provoking.

Also, the acting is generally good. Ken Leung acts a conflicted guy really well - both moralistic and sleazy at the same time, both western in thought and wanting to rediscover his roots at the same time. And Hayden Panittiere? Damn, she’s awesome. If I could afford paying her for my next movie, I would (hint to Miss Panittiere!!).

The story was well thought out - parallels were well placed. There was a parallel between Liam’s life in L.A and in Shanghai. There is also a parallel between his inner character and the whole story as an arc. There was a parallel of him denying his Chinese roots, him denying his western upbringing and him denying his actual love for Adelaide. When it gets down, its the story of a man overcoming his denials, and accepting them.

Also, the story manages not to be over mushy (cue insults to Nicholas Sparks’ books/movies). It is well paced, and well scripted. Some people have even likened this movie to a Woody Allen film.

The Bad
This movie isn’t without its flaws. In fact, I can list quite a lot on the fly too. The movie isn’t really realistic - Liam decides to fall in love with Micky within 3 days in Shanghai??!! WTF? And the whole mafia/bad guy character, Jai Li wasn’t very well developed. Character development exists, but it isn’t realistic at all. For example, for someone like Liam who wants to ‘rediscover his roots’, he doesn’t even bother to learn Mandarin (as can be seen when he tried to borrow a phone from an old woman).

There were too many tiny unnecessary subplots that the story could do without, one is the aforementioned Jai Li thing. Another is the father-son relationship - that was underdeveloped as well. These subplots are too tiny to be even considered, actually. Also, I find that in trying to keep the pace of the movie, it glosses over a lot of things. Maybe that’s a good thing hey?

Also, Kelly Hu’s performance as Micky was inconsistent. She occasionally speaks with a slightly Chinese accent, and occasionally she speaks proper American English. Though I must say she looks and performs very much better in this movie than in any other movies/TV series she starred in (like the horrid Scorpion King, or the inane In Case of Emergency).

The Ugly
There were no subtitles. Not for the English or the Mandarin. But for the Shanghainese. I couldn’t quite catch what they were saying actually. Shanghainese is a totally weird language on its own, kinda like a mixture of Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. Then again, maybe it’s supposed not to have subtitles, as to immerse the viewers in Liam’s situation. Heh.

Also, this movie may be thought provoking, but it certainly isn’t memorable. There are no scenes that stand out in memory. Unlike the final heart wrenching scene in A Walk to Remember (OKAY!!! I admit! Nicholas Sparks does write good romantic movies, and I’m a sucker for them!), there wasn’t a single scene that stood out in memory to me. This certainly would doom this movie to only film academics and those who do film studies, or those who study culture.

Oh yea, what is with Liam and meeting girls with names of places? He hooks up with girls called Adelaide (a BOOOORING place in South Australia), Virginia, and Georgia. WTF? (Micky was an exception)

Final Thoughts
Watch this. I liked the show. It raises some questions about one’s cultural identity. It’s a good love story - not too mushy, and not trashy at all. It is quite balanced. Asides from the unnecessary and underdeveloped subplots, I’d still say this is a good movie to watch. There are a lot of quotes that raise questions on cultural roots and history, but only ought to be said in context. I’d say, please do yourself a favor, and watch this movie. 7/10.

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