Shanghai Surprise (1986)

Shanghai, 1938: A missionary/Madonna hires a man/S.Penn to help her find 1100 lbs. opium lost, as wounded need the morphine. Chemistry?

Director:

Jim Goddard

Writers:

John Kohn (screenplay), Robert Bentley (screenplay)

Stars:

Sean Penn, Madonna, Paul Freeman

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Penn	...	Glendon Wasey
Madonna	...	Gloria Tatlock
Paul Freeman	...	Walter Faraday
Richard Griffiths	...	Willie Tuttle
Philip Sayer	...	Justin Kronk
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Joe Go
Kay Tong Lim	...	Mei Gan
Sonserai Lee	...	China Doll
Victor Wong	...	Ho Chong
Professor Toru Tanaka	...	Yamagani San
Michael Aldridge	...	Mr. Burns
Sarah Lam	...	China Doll's Maid
George She	...	Wu Ch'En She
Won Gam Bor	...	Rickshaw King
To Chee Kan	...	China Doll's Boatman

Storyline

Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shangai.

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Plot Keywords:

china | year 1937 | opium | shanghai china | city name in title | 

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Taglines:

A romantic adventure for the dangerous at heart.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Official Sites:

Handmade Films Website

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 August 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aventuras en Shanghai

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$719,885, 1 September 1986, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$2,315,683

Company Credits

Production Co:

HandMade Films, The Vista Organisation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Apparently, after principal photography wrapped, executive producer George Harrison allegedly said of lead stars Madonna and Sean Penn: "Penn is a pain the ass . . . [whilst] she has to realize that you can be a fabulous person and be humble as well".

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Goofs

During the bathhouse scene Justin tells Glendon that the Chinese use tomato juice to remove the stench of skunks. Of course there are no skunks in China. Skunks live only in North America.

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Quotes

[first title card]
Title Card: Shanghai 1937
Title Card: The Year of the Japanese Occupation

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Connections

Featured in Cinemadonna: Dick Tracy (2014)

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Soundtracks

Zig-Zag
Music by George Harrison & Jeff Lynne
Arranged by John Du Prez
Performed by The Gaslight Orchestra
Courtesy of Dark Horse Records & Warner Bros. Records, Inc.

User Reviews

25 years later: it's mellowed with age

The thought struck me recently that this movie was unfavorably received by critics and audiences alike at the time of its release (1986) because of the celebrity status of the two leading stars - Madonna and Sean Penn. But, if you watch the movie today, some twenty five years later, and if you are able to put the hype and the celebrity status of those two stars out of your mind, then, the movie doesn't seem so bad. In fact, it's actually a pretty good escapist adventure romp along the lines of an Indiana Jones movie.

I watched this movie for the first time just recently, as I was scared away from viewing it all those many years prior, simply because of all the negative hype surrounding it - the hype that said it was a real stinker. But I actually found it to be a pretty engrossing story, with a nicely done cinematography that oozed a colorful, exotic, sometimes even enchanting Oriental atmosphere that was hard to dismiss. Some of the shots, as filmed, were... beautiful! So don't let 1980's critics scare you away: this movie is worth a shot, and if you can mentally distill the two leads down to just being a guy and a girl from 1930's America thrust into an adventure escapade set in a faraway exotic locale, then you just might enjoy this movie for what it was meant to be: pure escapist entertainment.

Not perfect, but then again, NOT the stinker it has been made out to be.