Review: Shanghai Kiss
Ken Leung, probably best known as the karaoke equipment salesman in the Edward Norton comedy Keeping the Faith, is a great dramatic actor too, as evidenced by his powerful performance as Quill in X-Men: The Last Stand. So when I found out he would play the lead in Shanghai Kiss, I didn't even check to see whether it was a comedy or a drama before buying a ticket. As unbelievable as it seems, this is Leung's first lead role.
Shanghai Kiss is that rare thing, a fresh romantic comedy. That's thanks in part to Shanghai-born David Ren's sharp screenplay and up-to-date take on China, but most of all to Leung, who's like a freshly opened bottle of champagne in every scene. The New York native delivers Ren's consistently funny lines like he was born to play Liam Liu, the hard-luck Asian-American actor trying to become a star in L.A. I was surprised to learn during the Q&A after last night's premiere at SFIAAFF that he had to audition for the role. The whole production plays like a Leung vehicle.
If you're at all familiar with returning-to-roots stories, there's nothing especially new about Liam's story, but in the hands of Ren and Leung it becomes a heartfelt story about a character we've just met. An interesting complication is Liam's ambiguous relationship with 16-year-old Adelaide in L.A., well-played by Hayden Panettiere of NBC's "Heroes." What is original for an American movie is the way Shanghai is portrayed, especially when Liam first arrives to handle the sale of a home his grandmother left to him. There's no Chinese-y music, no bicycle traffic jams, no wizened old faces or Mao jackets. In time, China's poverty plays a key role in the film, but Liam's first glimpse of Shanghai is of a dynamic, modern city, a land of promise, with a pulsating rock soundtrack.
It's a bit inaccurate to call Shanghai Kiss a film, though. It was shot on high-definition digital video, which for the most part looks wonderful. The lighting looks natural for the most part, the colors are dazzling -- at times a bit unnaturally so, like a modern-day classic Technicolor -- and the sharpness is eye-popping. This is the best digital video I've seen on the big screen. The new medium will take some getting used to, but it's a legitimate alternative to film.
More than that, I hope this marks the Leung's arrival as a big-screen force. Shanghai Kiss is heading for theatrical distribution in selected markets, and I think it has the goods to go wider. Either way, you can't deny that the star is a natural.
Shanghai Kiss is that rare thing, a fresh romantic comedy. That's thanks in part to Shanghai-born David Ren's sharp screenplay and up-to-date take on China, but most of all to Leung, who's like a freshly opened bottle of champagne in every scene. The New York native delivers Ren's consistently funny lines like he was born to play Liam Liu, the hard-luck Asian-American actor trying to become a star in L.A. I was surprised to learn during the Q&A after last night's premiere at SFIAAFF that he had to audition for the role. The whole production plays like a Leung vehicle.
If you're at all familiar with returning-to-roots stories, there's nothing especially new about Liam's story, but in the hands of Ren and Leung it becomes a heartfelt story about a character we've just met. An interesting complication is Liam's ambiguous relationship with 16-year-old Adelaide in L.A., well-played by Hayden Panettiere of NBC's "Heroes." What is original for an American movie is the way Shanghai is portrayed, especially when Liam first arrives to handle the sale of a home his grandmother left to him. There's no Chinese-y music, no bicycle traffic jams, no wizened old faces or Mao jackets. In time, China's poverty plays a key role in the film, but Liam's first glimpse of Shanghai is of a dynamic, modern city, a land of promise, with a pulsating rock soundtrack.
It's a bit inaccurate to call Shanghai Kiss a film, though. It was shot on high-definition digital video, which for the most part looks wonderful. The lighting looks natural for the most part, the colors are dazzling -- at times a bit unnaturally so, like a modern-day classic Technicolor -- and the sharpness is eye-popping. This is the best digital video I've seen on the big screen. The new medium will take some getting used to, but it's a legitimate alternative to film.
More than that, I hope this marks the Leung's arrival as a big-screen force. Shanghai Kiss is heading for theatrical distribution in selected markets, and I think it has the goods to go wider. Either way, you can't deny that the star is a natural.
posted by Steve at
10:51 AM
3 Comments:
sounds great, i'll wait for a dekko in cinema. pitches in a number of cities interesting -- adelaide, shanghai, LA
Hmmmm. You intrigue me to check this out on screener.
since I don't watch tv much, I didn't even know Ken until I saw this film. I wish I knew him earlier, or I wish he stayed at the festival longer...
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